Diversified major Rio Tinto in June completed the sale of its 78% interest in the Murowa diamond mine and its 50% interest in the Sengwa coalfields, both in Zimbabwe, to RZ Murowa Holdings, a division of Zimbabwean independent mining company Rio-Zim.
Prior to the transactions, Rio-Zim already held the remaining 22% interest in Murowa and 50% share in Sengwa. Rio-Zim will now assume the overall management of both entities.
Commenting on the trans-action, Rio Tinto says it believes that the future of these assets can be best managed by entities with existing interests in Zimbabwe.
Rio Tinto diamonds and minerals CE Alan Davies says: “Rio Tinto remains committed to the diamond industry and is focused on operating its two world-class underground mines, while obtaining the approvals for its advanced [Bunder] diamond project, in India.”
Meanwhile, Mining Weekly reported in March this year that Rio-Zim has ordered a gold processing plant and planned to spend up to $3-million on new underground mining equipment in a bid to resuscitate operations at its Cam and Motor gold mine, in the central Zimbabwe district of Kadoma.
In a statement sent out to notify shareholders of the immin-ent resumption of activity at the gold mine, which ceased operations in 1968, Rio-Zim said it hoped to stabilise its cash flow by funding the Cam and Motor project through a rights offer to one of its subsidiaries, GEM Rio-Zim Investments.
GEM has already paid $700 000 as part of its subscrip-tion towards the acquisition of the full shareholding rights on offer.
At the time of its closure in 1968, Cam and Motor had produced 5.3-million ounces of gold.
Trials conducted on the mine’s waste dumps early last year produced impressive results. A deep drilling programme, which seeks to quantify gold reserves located between 100 m and 400 m deep, started in 2010 and is still under way.
“The Cam and Motor gold mining project is one of the key projects expected to get the Rio-Zim group turnaround strategy back on track. Recent geological and metallurgic testwork revealed that, with the current technology and given the current grades of ore, Cam and Motor is capable of producing significant amounts of gold at a competitive cost of production,” the company says.
The new gold processing plant, which was ordered from China, has the capacity to process 1 500 t/m of gold ore.
The group says it will contract mining companies to drill, blast and haul the ore to the plant.
Rio-Zim also owns the Empress nickel mine and refinery, the Renco gold mine and the Murowa diamond mine, among other concerns in Zimbabwe.
However, the company has been hard hit by the mutating economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
Diamond Commitment
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto underscores the importance of its strategic partnership in India in driving growth and future opportunities in the global diamond industry.
Speaking at the World Diamond Conference in Delhi, which took place in December last year, Rio Tinto diamonds MD Jean-Marc Lieberherr said: “Our partnership with the Indian diamond industry is a 30-year journey that covers everything from diamond manufacturing technology, to unique market development initiatives and the first diamond discovery in India in decades.
“Development of our Bunder diamond project, in Madhya Pradesh, is a natural continuation of the partnership model and will put India among the top 10 diamond producing countries in the world.
“The Bunder project is positive proof of the natural abundance and prospectivity of India and provides the ideal opportunity to showcase a new benchmark for mine development in India. The opportunity to produce diamonds mined, manufactured and marketed in India on a commercial scale is exciting and very much aligned to the ‘Make in India’ campaign.”
The Bunder diamond project, discovered in 2004 and currently awaiting approvals, will generate an estimated 30 000 jobs and significant economic benefits for India.