The Government of Zimbabwe and Trafigura Group have reportedly discussed a deal that would give the latter control over the output from some of the mines of state-run Kuvimba Mining House Ltd as repayment for debts.
Zimbabwe owes Trafigura millions of dollars for fuel, with some of the contracts dating back to 2016.
Trafigura, which is one of the world’s biggest oil and metals traders, will be paid $225.6 million by nickel and gold-mining subsidiaries of Kuvimba.
In response to detailed questions from Bloomberg, the Singapore-based trading house confirmed a deal.
Under the deal, the unpaid bills incurred by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would be transferred to the Finance Ministry, which has control over Kuvimba.
Kuvimba would pay Trafigura $6 million a month and retain 40% of payments to the Freda Rebecca and Shamva gold mines, as well as the nickel mines owned by Bindura Nickel Corp.
Freda Rebecca, Shamva and Bindura Nickel are subsidiaries of Kuvimba.
The agreement shows that Trafigura would also have the right to approve buyers of the metal selected by Bindura and would have the right of first refusal on the metal.
It would also have the right to buy the gold produced by Freda Rebecca and Shamva.
The agreement also says the payments to Trafigura won’t be subject to tax and the transaction documents won’t need to be lodged with any authority in Zimbabwe.