Mutapa Investment Fund adopts new business model,launches stand alone gold unit

HARARE – The Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth fund, has announced a restructuring of its mining portfolio where they initiated the creation of a stand alone gold business,Express Mail Zim can report. The new arrangement makes it a commodity focused operating model, abandoning the previous multi layered holding structure in favour of separate companies for each mineral group. Simbarashe Chinyemba, MIF chief investment officer addressed journalists at a briefing hosted by Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) in Harare Thursday.

He stated that the overhaul marks “a strategic shift for the Mutapa Investment Fund.” Chinyemba elaborated. “We are unveiling a comprehensive restructuring that transitions us from a broad holding model to specialised mineral companies.” Under the new framework, assets will be categorized into distinct companies focusing on gold, platinum group metals, energy minerals (including lithium and nickel) and base metals. This reorganization effectively leads to the shutdown of KMH and establishes five new mining units which includes Mutapa Gold Resources under Trevor Barnard, Mutapa Base Metals under Godwin Gambiza, Mutapa Energy Minerals under Innocent Rukweza, Mutapa Platinum Group under Munashe Shava and Mutapa Frontier, which will focus on new acquisitions.

Chinyemba criticized the former system, which involved entities like KMH and various minority shareholdings describing it as “a spiderweb” that impeded efficiency. “We are rationalising this structure to create a more streamlined and efficient ownership model,” he said. “What we are doing is neither unique nor experimental; it reflects how the world’s leading mining houses organise themselves.” Chinyemba revealed the risks associated with maintaining a diversified conglomerate.