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[Ferro-Alloys.com]Zimbabwe on Tuesday lifted the ban on chrome ore exports to help enhance capacity for local producers and grow the sector.
The move was also expected to restore economic livelihoods of small-scale producers and boost revenue to government through royalties, fees and other taxes.
Zimbabwe holds about 12 percent of the world’s chromite reserves, while South Africa accounts for around 70 percent of deposits of the base metal.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa said at a news conference that “government has, with immediate effect, lifted the ban on the export of chrome ore to allow for the export of up to 30-million tons of chrome ore (lumpy, fines and concentrates) over and above the export of processed ferrochrome”.
He said the 30-million tons threshold would be “subject to review based on desired developments in the establishment of additional smelting capacity in the country”.
Zimbabwe imposed the ban four years ago, citing local value-addition and beneficiation reasons.
However, the ban did not result in additional chrome smelting capacity owing to lack of efficient and modern technology for processing chrome ore to ferrochrome, falling international prices of ferrochrome to sub-economic levels and high electricity tariffs.
In lifting the ban, the government said it had considered available chrome ore production capacity which was expected at 1,5-million tons a year, limited smelting capacity at 455,200 tons a year and available rail transportation capacity at National Railways of Zimbabwe to port estimated at over one million tons a year.
Chidhakwa added that the government had also reviewed the current chrome mining royalty fees from 2- to 5 percent, while the export tax of 20 percent had been removed to allow chrome ore producers to generate income to increase smelting capacity.
Zimbabwe had also lowered the electricity tariffs for chrome miners from $0,08 to $0,067 (R0,99 to R0,83) per kilowatt hour.
This was in a bid to assist the chrome producers to operate viably and allow them to create investment capacity in smelting.
“Prior to the suspension of export of chrome ore in 2011, total prepayments amounting to $9,432,335 were made for exportation of lumpy and concentrate chrome ore totalling about 77 000 metric tons,” said Chidhakwa, adding that the tonnage had not been shipped following the ban.
He also told the conference that on top of the current 12 chrome ore smelting companies, the government would establish a special purpose vehicle.
Chidhakwa said all exports would be conducted under the auspices of the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and facilitated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa also told reporters that companies that were not utilising their claims would be required to surrender them under a use-it-or-lose-it policy.
The government has already said that it is taking over nearly 27,000 hectares of land used by Zimplats, a unit of world number two platinum producer, Impala Platinum.
“Cabinet also took note of the fact that a lot of companies are sitting on idle chrome-ore claims. The minister (Chidhakwa) was mandated to … investigate and then ask those (companies) to surrender those claims to those who can work them. We would want to make sure that all our assets are sweated and it is for that reason that cabinet took that decision,” Chinamasa said.
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- [Editor:sunzhichao]
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