THE Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Russian firm OMZ-Special Steels LLC which will see the government owned miner accessing equipment for its operations.
Most of ZMDC’s mines are under care and maintenance or mothballed due to lack of funding or obsolete equipment and the deal will help the miner to access modern equipment as OMZ is Russia’s largest manufacturer of metallurgical steel, specialising in forgings for mining equipment.
“Our machinery is old and fast becoming obsolete making the entire mining process costly,” said the co-chair of the joint commission, Zimbabwe’s foreign minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi at the signing ceremony.
The agreement is one of several expected to be signed between the two countries during the visit to the country by  the Russian business delegation led by Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected in Harare later on Monday to participate in the commissioning of the Darwendale Integrated Platinum Group Metals Project in Mashonaland West on Tuesday.
The project is a joint venture between the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and Russian investors that include VB Bank and RUSTEC among others.
The Russian delegation has expressed interest in a number of areas of trade such as agriculture, infrastructural development, health and higher education.
Mumbengegwi said the joint commission was looking at broadening the framework for cooperation to cover other sectors other than mining.
Russia has in recent years increased its mining interests in Zimbabwe where it is already exploiting gold and diamonds.
The Darwendale platinum project, with production capacity of 600,000 ounces of platinum annually, is expected to become Zimbabwe’s biggest mining operation.Advertisement