STOLEN ORE : BIKITA LOSES CASE newsdzeZimbabweNewsdzeZimbabwe

STOLEN ORE : BIKITA LOSES CASE newsdzeZimbabweNewsdzeZimbabwe

Lithium producer Bequita Minerals has lost a High Court case seeking an embargo on Orion Resources over some lithium ore it claimed was stolen from its mine.

Bikita Minerals has dragged Aurion Resources, the officer in charge of the flora and fauna unit of the ZRP CID in Masvingo and the officer leading ZRP Masvingo province to the High Court over the ore.

However, Justice Sonsley Zisingwe said in his decision that Bekita Metals in its draft order did not provide for second tests to be conducted in South Africa.

He said Bekita Metals had sought the court’s permission to make amendments to its draft order listing South Africa as the exclusive source for the second tests.

“Such a comprehensive attempt to amend the terms of the requested order can only mean one thing. That such a course of action was never in the minds of the parties when they agreed to a second opinion regarding the lithium ore samples.

“So, in the end, I do not think that the applicant has demonstrated a clear right to send the samples exclusively to South Africa for a second opinion.

“A second opinion has already been obtained albeit not in the applicant’s favour. Therefore, the application must be rejected on this basis.

The ban request was also rejected due to Bikita Minerals’ failure to prove a clear right.

“Even if he had established a clear right, the application would still have failed on the basis of the applicant’s failure to demonstrate that there was no alternative remedy.

“Accordingly, the application for final interdiction is dismissed with the applicant paying the costs of the suit to the first respondent,” the judge ruled.

The crux of the matter was a dispute over the origins and ownership of a shipment of lithium ore seized by police on May 8 last year.

Both Bikita Minerals and Aurion Resources are in the business of mining lithium ore while the latter also sources lithium ore from small-scale miners.

According to the request, on May 5 last year Bikita Minerals received information from the police that some lithium ore suspected to have been extracted from its mine was at the premises of Aurion Resources.

Police confiscated the lithium ore, three days later, on suspicion that it was stolen.

It was agreed between the parties and the police that the samples would be subjected to mineralogical testing by a government examiner to determine whether the lithium ore belonged to Bequita Minerals.

The test compared the seized lithium ore to samples sourced from the Piquita Minerals and Orion Resources mines.

There are three types of lithium ore: petalite, spodumene and lepidolite.

Metallurgical technician Nitsai Makanja of the State Minerals Department conducted the tests and the results did not support Bikita Minerals’ claim.

A criminal case was also filed against the person found in possession of the ore on the grounds that the metal was stolen.

However, the court ordered the ore to be released to Aurion Resources but Bikita Minerals objected to the release and chose to conduct a second test.

Glenda Farreby, chief chemist in the minerals division, then ran the second tests, and the results indicated that the ore did not belong to Bequita Minerals.

However, Bequita Metals insisted that the second tests did not constitute a second report, arguing that they were obtained from the same institution.

The miner suggested that the second tests be conducted in South Africa, saying that the so-called second opinion was not a second opinion.

However, Aurion Resources objected to the move, arguing that the timeline for obtaining a report from South Africa could not be met due to red tape involved in government regulations that required Cabinet authority to take samples abroad for analysis.

Aurion Resources has insisted it owns the disputed lithium ore, arguing that Bikita Minerals filed a police report in the mistaken belief that the ore belonged to it.

It also argued that Bikita Minerals was constantly changing target posts, meaning what was agreed was to obtain a second opinion to determine the origins of the disputed lithium ore. Newsday




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