Amplats to build Zim plant to avoid tax

Johannesburg - Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] said it plans to build a "secondhand" smelter in Zimbabwe as the world’s largest producer of the metal seeks to avoid paying a 15% tax on exports of unprocessed minerals from that country.

The company will use "all sorts of bits and bobs around the company" to build a smelter at its Unki mine in Zimbabwe, CEO Chris Griffith said.

It halted exports of metal concentrate from Zimbabwe to South Africa after negotiating with the Government over the tax that came into effect in January, the producer said in a statement. Exports resumed in July following a deal to postpone the tax, it said.

“We’ll be coming up with what we think is an optimal low capital solution to smelting and thereby avoiding the 15% beneficiation tax,” Griffith said at a presentation in Johannesburg on Monday.

Zimbabwe’s Government has repeatedly warned miners of the precious metal that taxes and royalties will be raised unless the mineral is smelted in the country, rather than in neighboring South Africa.

Producers operating in Zimbabwe include the Anglo American [JSE:AGL] unit and Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP], the world’s two biggest of the metal.