Zimbabwe lithium miners want royalties to be linked to prices
The battery metal has slumped from a peak in late 2022 amid oversupply and weak demand from the electric vehicle sector.
Zimbabwean Mining Minister, Obert Mpofu, categorically denied Sunday a report by British newspaper The Times (subs. required), claiming the African nation had signed a secret deal to supply Iran with uranium, the key element use to make nuclear weapons.
Speaking at Zimbabwe’s state radio on Sunday morning, Mpofu said the country’s uranium deposits have not been exploited and that the country has “never issued any license to any Iranian company.”
He went on to saying that The Times article was British media’s latest “malicious and blatant lie”, reports AP.
Meanwhile local police have launched a manhunt for the two British journalists who broke the story. Under Zimbabwe’s media law, they will face a penalty of imprisonment or a fine for “publishing falsehoods.”
Reporters Jerome Starkey and Jan Raath quoted outgoing Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister, Gift Chimanikire, saying he saw the memorandum of understanding to export uranium to the Iranians.
Chimanikire also was said to confess the deal was made without his knowledge, and that it was only known to a handful of people at the top of the government.
But they also quoted analysts as saying that it was likely to be a long time before Zimbabwe’s uranium reserves were ready for export.
Mpofu is a member of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, while Chimanikire is from the rival Movement for Democratic Change.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
5 Comments
Peter
If Chimanikire spent those many years as Deputy Minister and didn’t know what was happening in his Ministry, then why was he getting paid a fat salary to sit in the first place!!! All politicians are the same, if they are having it good, then they see nothing, hear nothing but when the chickens come home to roost, then its pay back time for their perceived competitors!!!!!
john
God is waiting for Mugabe and his crew. They have a 1way ticket to hell.
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Guest
Unfortunately, Mugabe and his Zimbabwe Government are masters of deceit and corruption. Nothing they say is to be believed..
Raja Sohaib
Classical Iranian (Persian) civilisation goes back to 2650 years ago not
“1000 years” , to the time of Kourosh (Cyrus) the Great who wrote the
first Human Rights Charter in history of Iran Top News.