Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters of Aiteo Group which owns Bravura Holdings, has $1bn available for the development of a platinum mine in Zimbabwe, its country manager told Bloomberg.
The 3,000ha concession where it plans to dig the mine is in Selous, 80km south of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and close to existing platinum mines.
“From where we are now, we will go to resource definition, after that we will go to resource modeling, after mine development and then mine construction,” Lionel Mhlanga, Bravura’s manager in Zimbabwe. Said.
“Those are all things that should happen in the next 18 months.”
Bravura is one of a number of little-known companies that have secured platinum concessions in Zimbabwe as the government seeks to kick-start its economy.
While Zimbabwe has the world’s third-largest platinum group metal reserves, investors have been deterred by frequent changes to mining laws and currency policies.
Peters own Aiteo Group, Nigeria’s biggest domestic oil producer. The group also intends to explore mining lithium, rare earth minerals and tin in Zimbabwe, Mhlanga said.
It is also seeking to mine cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, copper in Zambia, gold in Ghana and iron ore in Guinea, he said. Namibia and Botswana could also be options for the company.