South African tycoon Mzi Khumalo may lose Zimbabwe gold mines over $70 million debt

South African tycoon Mzi Khumalo risks losing the Zimbabwean gold assets he spent two decades building after leaving a £53.2 million ($70.3 million) tab unsettled. The unpaid sum stems from the buyout of Bulawayo Mining Company, whose flagship How Mine, Mazowe, and Redwing assets anchor his remaining resources portfolio.

Greenstone Corp., a Khumalo family vehicle, acquired the operating unit in 2024 from UK-insolvent Metallon Corp. Under the unusual buyout terms, Greenstone carried no direct liability. Instead, Khumalo and his family’s Southern SelliBen Trust stepped in as personal guarantors, pledging to settle the balance with British insolvency practitioners.

Gold empire on edge

Now the bill has come due with no cash in sight. Successor entity Namib Minerals, listed on the Nasdaq, revealed in regulatory filings that the purchase price remains unsatisfied. The miner cautioned shareholders that creditors could launch court claims to scrap the sale entirely or demand immediate settlement.

To buy time, the family trust assigned a 4.9 percent equity stake to Metallon’s administrators in July 2025. That collateral became legally enforceable on July 5 after an unfulfilled June deadline and a 30-day grace period lapsed. Regulators have not recorded any formal asset seizures yet.

The trust held a dominant 63.7 percent stake following the US public debut, alongside rights to 21 million milestone shares. Filings show Khumalo holds no direct voting authority over the trust’s stock. Namib Chairman Tulani Sikwila, an old Metallon lieutenant, serves as one of its four trustees.

Heavy cash drain

Khumalo has also been liquidating his personal reserves. He dumped 4.89 million shares at an average of $3.46 through February, later borrowing 4 million shares from the trust in June. With Namib stock skidding to $1.12, the miner’s $64 million valuation sits below the delinquent purchase debt.

The mining company originally went public in June 2025 through a tie-up with Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VI. While six-month revenue gained 40 percent to $50.8 million, Namib burned through liquid reserves, leaving just $1.8 million in cash against a $42.9 million working capital deficit.

Operational headwinds forced management to slash full-year output targets to roughly 26,500 ounces. While How Mine completed a mill expansion on Oct. 9, having yielded 1.8 million ounces since 1941, legal fights persist. Zimbabwean courts are now hearing renewed bids to force Mazowe into corporate rescue.

Rise of a tycoon

The looming squeeze marks an unexpected chapter for a financier who cut his teeth surviving apartheid. Raised by a widowed mother of ten in Durban’s KwaMashu township, Khumalo traded scrap fuel before joining the African National Congress. His underground anti-apartheid work landed him on Robben Island in 1978.

He served 12 years of a 20-year sentence alongside Nelson Mandela before walking free in 1990. Rather than chasing state office, Khumalo dived into corporate dealmaking, establishing Capital Alliance Holdings. The pioneering black-empowerment firm grew rapidly, eventually steering an $8 billion portfolio before Khumalo staged a lucrative exit.

Khumalo pivoted into heavy industry in 2002 by launching Metallon, acquiring Lonmin’s Zimbabwean gold assets for $15.5 million. The audacious cross-border bet turned Metallon into Zimbabwe’s undisputed mining heavyweight, generating roughly 100,000 ounces annually at its peak before crippling local currency rules and rolling blackouts choked output.