HARARE – Bravura Consortium will spend more than US$50 million to explore for and mine platinum in Zimbabwe, mines minister Winston Chitando said on Friday after both parties signed the agreement.
Zimbabwe is seeking to quickly exploit its reserves of platinum, which is in growing demand for use in catalytic converters to limit emissions as car manufacturers shift to making electric cars powered by lithium batteries.
Bravura is linked to a Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters.
The concession comes just over a year after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government signed an agreement with Cyprus-based Karo Resources to develop a $4.2 billion integrated platinum mine.
The agreement allows Bravura to explore for platinum on Zimbabwe’s mineral-rich Greak Dyke.
Peters, who is based in Ghana, is the founder of Aiteo Group, which has interests in oil.
Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings already mine platinum in Zimbabwe. Impala also owns a joint-venture mine with Sibanye-Stillwater.
A Russian consortium and Zimbabwean investors are developing a platinum project in Darwendale near Harare.
