MUTARE– Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company, which is in line for a major joint deal; with AIM listed firm VAST Resources, has revealed that the deal is now imminent.
By Donald Nyarota
ZCDC chief executive officer, Roberto De Pretto has said a deal has already been agreed with VAST Resources, while government is finalising the final joint venture agreement.
De Preto said the only sticking issues in the deal are line ministries that are involved for a joint mining venture, which will includes a community shareholding in the new venture, Katanga Resources.
He said they were hopeful that they will ink the deal before year end to enable them to hit the ground running and start production on the new site.
“We actually follow a set of procedures, we got documents that need to be completed and signed, unfortunately we have to follow due process and that’s what we’re busy with at the moment.
“We have advanced quite a lot and we are now just waiting for the final stages of the process to be completed before we hit the ground running,” he said.
“I can’t talk on behalf of other ministries because it requires input from the Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Finance, its a whole lot of groups that need to sign on the deal, but we are hopeful that this will be done by year end,” he added.
De Pretto said the firm’s direction was indicative of the new thrust to put community needs at the centre of development, as they have been given a social licence to operate by the community.
“ZCDC is a responsible mining company we listen to the community. We will attend to the needs of the community because they give us the social license to operate, we are in partnership with the community and together we will walk the path,” he said.
De Pretto said the signing of an agreement between VAST Resources and Chiadza community is historic in advancing community benefits from natural resources.
He said to ensure the ease of signing modalities VAST Resources signed an agreement with the community to form Katanga Resources, the joint venture partner for ZCDC in the new agreement.
“Chiadzwa community signed an agreement with VAST Resources, they formed a new entity called Katanga Resources which then came to ZCDC and we signed an agreement with them so its a back to back arrangement.
“We have one to one with Katanga and what is exciting about this arrangement is that it is the first time in the history of Zimbabwe that a community will have a shareholding in a mining company, we are pioneering something which has never been done before.
“There has always been trust funds or trust deeds but now they are shareholders owning a piece of the company, we are so excited about this development what we are hoping for now is the acceleration of the final deal,” said De Pretto.
