The founder of Zimbabwe’s largest gold mining group wants to start platinum operations in the country, which has the world’s largest reserves of the metal after South Africa.

“We clearly have aspirations to be in the platinum business, but it will be here in Zimbabwe – we wouldn’t want to get involved in South Africa,” says Metallon Corporation founder and CEO Mzi Khumalo in an interview in Harare, the capital.

Impala Platinum Holdings, Aquarius Platinum and Anglo American Platinum, the world’s biggest producer of the metal, are the sole miners of the commodity in the country. Russia and Zimbabwe will jointly mine platinum in the African country’s Darwendale district, creating what will be its biggest facility for the metal, the nations said last month.

Obtaining Land

“There are no firm dates yet, and the company has yet to engage with government about obtaining land,” Khumalo says. “If we get a platinum ground that has not been drilled, then out of that will come a bankable feasible study.”

The spot price of platinum, used in jewellery and catalytic converters, which reduce harmful emissions from vehicles, rose to $1 269.62/oz last week, paring the decline this year to 7.4%.

Metallon has four gold mining operations, a development asset and exploration licences in Zimbabwe. It forecasts 100 000 oz of bullion output this year. The company secured four exploration properties in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is obtaining rights near Tanzania’s Lake Victoria goldfields.

“At the moment, it could be a good aspiration,” says Khumalo, who is from South Africa and founded Metallon on 2001. Optimistic “People like me, who are in the resources business . . . of necessity, have to be optimistic. “It’s the nature of the beast – you have to be optimistic, but, at the same time, you must be able to balance your optimism with actual exploration.”

Khumalo, who bought the Zimbabwe gold mining assets of Lonmin to build up Metallon, is the former chairperson of JCI, which was South Africa’s first black-owned mining company before its assets were sold.

He served time as a political prisoner during apartheid with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town.