JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe was currently in closed discussions with relevant authorities to finalise the indigenisation and empowerment quota for the mining industry, in terms of that country’s new Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment regulations, midtier miner Aquarius Platinum said on Wednesday.

The JSE- and LSE-listed miner noted in a statement that the company, which had a subsidiary, the Mimosa Mining company in Zimbabwe, was studying the regulations.

It said that the Zimbabwean government had already gazetted these regulations and that Aquarius would make a formal response to compliance, guided by advice from its subsidiary, which was a member of the Chamber of Mines.

According to Aquarius, the regulations intended for all foreign companies to “localise or indigenise” 51% or their interest in all business sectors in Zimbabwe over the next five years.

Within the next twelve months, further rules would be gazetted “with respect to each sector and subsector of the economy what lesser share than the minimum indigenisation and empowerment quota shall be the minimum lesser share that indigenous Zimbabweans may hold in a business operating in the sector or subsector in question", the miner added.

Further, Aquarius said that the regulations also provided for what weighting to assign to any of the social and economically desirable objectives in favour of a business operating in a specified sector or subsector of the economy.

This weighting would be expressed as a fixed percentage that may be added towards the fulfilment of the minimum indigenisation empowerment quota.

Meanwhile, Aquarius also announced the appointment of Gavin Mackay as its business development and communications executive.

Mackay is a South African attorney and held a LLB and LLM degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, as well as a degree in economics and English from the University of Cape Town.