Chairman of Vedanta, Anil Agarwal shared his optimism around the reinforced relations between South Africa and India which were rebooted by India’s Prime Minster, Narendra Modi through his African tour.
Both Agarwal and the Minister are in South Africa with the aim to strengthen ties within the country and the continent - other countries on Minister Modi’s agenda include Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya.
"India and South Africa built very strong ties because of Nelson Mandela and Ghandi - that is how they started, we believe in the same principles; we have built a democracy on the same principles,” said Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta.
Vedanta Resources is a diversified mining firm which expressed intentions to expand further into South Africa by signing two memorandums of understanding with South African companies.
"There was huge support for me to invest in South Africa and do lots of business in South Africa, this was pending for the last 35 or 40 years built not starting - to start the project is going to cost a billion dollars, they have already invested 150 million dollars and we are very excited.”
He adds: "It is a part of the Black Mountain Mines (BMM) that we have and we are very excited, I believe that this is the largest project going on in Africa.”
"I believe that this is the largest project going on in Africa also South Africa has a tremendous mining skill and India does not have that, we have taken a lot of mining companies, spent almost 200 million dollars on these South African companies to take the South African contractors to India to develop our mines - so it is a two-way business."
Agarwal believes that both countries will mutually benefit and progress very well through this engagement.
"I look forward to complete my project within a year and a half to start producing and start seeing a lot of prosperity around,"
The chairman admits that this will be a hard project but that he was not prepared for the kind of support that he received from the South African government.
"They have supported wholeheartedly all the clearances, all the support; everybody has come forward to support this project that is really helping this project to complete on time."
By: CNBC Africa Repoorter.
Photo: Digital Look.
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