Zimbabwe Wealth Fund to Get Share of State Mining Revenue – by Godfrey Marawanyika & Franz Wild (Bloomberg News – November 24, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Zimbabwe’s planned sovereign wealth fund may get as much as a quarter of mining royalties and the same share of “special dividends” on state mineral and metal sales. Parliament will also be able to appropriate money to benefit the fund.

A 16-member board will decide on the fund’s activities, allowing it to make withdrawals, primarily to pay for infrastructure developments, according to a draft of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe Act obtained by Bloomberg News.

“That document will be taken to parliament sometime early next year,” Fred Moyo, the country’s deputy mines minister, said in a Nov. 22 interview by phone. “It’s critical for us to have a sovereign wealth fund, and that’s what every nation should do to address vulnerable situations.”

President Robert Mugabe, who extended his 33-year rule in July elections, is considering a range of options to finance the recovery of Zimbabwe’s economy, which shrank by 40 percent between 2000 and 2008. The country suffered from inflation estimated at 500 billion percent by the International Monetary Fund after the seizure of white-owned commercial farms slashed exports of crops including tobacco and roses.

As well as the sovereign wealth fund, the government is considering the sale of bonds, securitization of remittances, re-engagement with international finance institutions and the creation of special economic zones, according to a separate document signed by Mugabe and obtained from the Ministry of Finance on Nov. 15.

Platinum, Chrome

Zimbabwe has the world’s second-largest deposits of platinum and chrome and reserves of minerals ranging from coal and iron ore to gold and diamonds. Investment has been held back by a law compelling foreign and white-owned companies to sell or cede 51 percent of their local assets to black Zimbabweans or the government. Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP) and Rio Tinto Plc (RIO) are among companies that operate in the country.

The fund’s income will come from no more than a quarter of all mining royalties as well as the equivalent from ’special dividends’ on sales by the Minerals Marketing Corp. of Zimbabwe, which sells minerals on behalf of the state. The law defines special dividends as 50 percent of the gross value of any sales made by the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp. from any project it’s involved in.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-24/zimbabwe-wealth-fund-to-get-share-of-state-mining-revenue.html