Sep. 16, 2010 - Posco, South Korea's largest steelmaker is in talks with Zimbabwe to cooperate on the development of raw materials, the African nation's mines minister said.
"We're hoping for a good partnership with Posco," Minister Obert Mpofu said yesterday in an interview in Seoul. "We view Posco as a potential ally for Zimbabwe." Posco spokesman Choi Doo Jin declined to comment on talks.
South Korea, which imports almost all its energy and mineral needs, is competing with China and India to secure supplies of raw materials. Zimbabwe has the world's second - biggest deposits of platinum and chrome after South Africa and has reserves of gold, diamonds, coal and iron ore.
Posco officials visited Zimbabwe in June and will return by the end of the year, said Mpofu, who is visiting Seoul to attend a ministerial conference between South Korea and African nations.
South Korea companies have made 31 bids worth $9.9 billion for foreign resources assets in the past 12 months.
Posco is considering buying silica, a raw material used to make ferro-silicon, from Zimbabwe, spokesman Choi said on May 31. Zimbabwe has been visited by other South Korean companies looking for manganese and tin, minister Mpofu said.
Zimbabwe is rebuilding its economy after a decade long recession that followed a drought and President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to blacks deprived of land under colonial rule.
