A $70 Million Debt Threatens Mzi Khumalo’s Grip on Zimbabwe’s Gold

South African mining tycoon Mzi Khumalo faces the risk of losing control of three Zimbabwean gold mines after a $70 million payment guaranteed by him and a family trust remained unpaid.

The payment relates to the 2024 acquisition of Bulawayo Mining Company, which owns How Mine near Bulawayo and the Mazowe and Redwing mines. Greenstone Corp., a company linked to Khumalo’s family, bought the business from Metallon Corp., Khumalo’s former gold mining group, which is in administration in Britain.

Under the transaction, Greenstone was not directly liable for the purchase price. Instead, Khumalo and the Southern SelliBen Trust, established for the benefit of his family, guaranteed payment.

In an annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in April, Namib Minerals, Greenstone’s successor and a Nasdaq-listed company, said the purchase price “to date has not been satisfied”. It warned that a claim could seek to rescind the transaction or require the company to pay the outstanding amount.

The Southern SelliBen Trust agreed in July 2025 to pledge 4.9% of Namib Minerals to Metallon’s administrators as security for the debt.

The deed allows the security to be enforced if the amount owed to Metallon remains unpaid, or the company’s administration has not been discharged, by June 5, 2026, followed by a 30-day period to remedy the default.

That deadline has passed. No filing or report identified in the available information indicates that Metallon’s administrators have moved to enforce the security.

Following Namib’s stock market listing, the trust held 63.7% of the company’s shares and rights to as many as 21 million additional shares if performance targets were met.

Regulatory filings show that Khumalo, the trust’s settlor, has no voting or investment power over the shares. Tulani Sikwila, Namib’s chairman and chief executive and a former Metallon executive, is one of four directors of the trust company.

Khumalo also held Namib shares directly. He sold 4.89 million shares between August 2025 and February 2026 at an average price of about $3.46 each, according to filings. In June, the trust lent him 4 million shares, an August filing showed.

Namib’s shares traded at about $1.12 last week, valuing the company at approximately $64 million, below the $70 million purchase price owed for the mines.

Namib Minerals went public in June 2025 through a merger with Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VI, a U.S. special purpose acquisition company.

Revenue increased 40% to $50.8 million in the first half of 2026. However, the company reported cash of $1.8 million and a working capital deficit of $42.9 million at the end of June.

It also lowered its full-year gold production forecast to between 26,500 and 27,000 ounces. The commissioning of an expanded processing plant at How Mine was completed on Oct. 9.

How Mine, discovered in 1941, has produced about 1.8 million ounces of gold. The operation accounted for the 11,373 ounces Namib reported in the first half of 2026.

The company is also contesting a renewed application in Zimbabwean courts to place Mazowe under corporate rescue, a process designed to rehabilitate financially distressed businesses.

Khumalo, 70, spent 12 years imprisoned on Robben Island for his role in the African National Congress’s armed struggle against apartheid before being released in 1990.

He later became one of South Africa’s prominent Black mining financiers, taking control of Johannesburg Consolidated Investment in the late 1990s.

In 2002, he acquired Lonmin’s Zimbabwean gold assets for $15.5 million and built Metallon into one of Zimbabwe’s largest gold producers. At its peak, the group produced about 100,000 ounces of gold annually.

Metallon subsequently came under pressure from approximately $200 million in debt, unpaid electricity bills and wage arrears. The business entered corporate rescue in Zimbabwe in 2019.

Its Shamva mine was sold in 2020 to a company linked to Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a Zimbabwean businessman who was sworn in as a cabinet minister on Oct. 12.

The unpaid acquisition price now places the ownership of Khumalo’s remaining Zimbabwean gold assets under pressure as Namib Minerals grapples with liquidity constraints and lower production expectations.

Stay ahead of the Stories shaping our world. Subscribe to Impact Newswire and join our 
WhatsApp Channel for updates on global tech, business, and innovation—all in one place.

Dive deeper into the future with the Cause Effect 4.0 Podcast, where we explore the ideas, trends, and technologies driving the global AI conversation.

Got a story to share? Contact Us to reach a global audience with Impact Newswire.