Anglo 'shaken down' in Zimbabwe

Camec lent $100m to the cash-strapped Zimbabwian government in mid-April, at a crucial time when funds were needed to bankroll President Robert Mugabe's election campaign.

The loan was a condition of the deal through which Camec bought two sets of claims which were formerly part of Anglo Platinum's Unki platinum project near Gweru in Zimbabwe.

According to an industry source Anglo was "shaken down" by the Zimbabwian government over Unki because of its desperate need for cash.

He said Anglo came under extreme pressure from the Zimbabwian government early this year to surrender half of its Unki project in terms of the country's new indigenisation legislation.

The pressure allegedly included visits from members of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation to various Anglo executives in Zimbabwe.

Anglo spokesperson James Wyatt-Tilby said: "Negotiations and discussions had taken place during the past two years between Anglo Platinum and the Zimbabwean government and these resulted in a cession of the claims in April this year. Anglo Platinum will receive empowerment credits for this transaction."

What happened next took place very rapidly because Camec announced on April 11 that it had bought control of the claims formerly held by Southridge Limited and Unki Mines, "both companies of the Anglo Platinum group".

It seems that once the Zimbabwian government had obtained the rights they were immediately repackaged with control vesting in a British Virgin Islands registered company called Lefever Finance.

The Camec announcement said it had bought Lefever which owned 60% of Todal Mining which was a Zimbabwean company owning the rights to the platinum concessions. The other 40% of Todal belonged to the Zimbabwe state-owned mining company Zimbabwe Mineral Development Corporation (ZMDC).

Camec bought Lefever from a company called Meryweather Investments to which it paid $5m in cash and issued 215m new Camec ordinary shares worth around $236m at the current Camec share price. Meryweather now holds a 13,1% stake in Camec.

But Camec also agreed to lend Lefever $100m "to enable Lefever to comply with its contractual obligations to the government of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Repayment to Lefever is to be made from the ZMDC's share of dividends from Todal".

Camec said it planned to bring a mine into production within 18 months producing between 120 000oz to 150 000oz annually at a capital cost of about $200m.

The company added the claims hosted a Samrec compliant resource of 7.5m oz of platinum and 15.7m oz of platinum group metals.

Neither Camec CEO Andrew Groves nor chairman Philippe Edmonds could be reached for comment.

- Mining MX

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