Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has sought to downplay the controversy planned reforms on overseas mining have provoked.

Earlier this year the president said he wanted to "indigenise" mines in the country, claiming a stake in overseas operations for the state.

Miners operating in the region such as Impala Platinum, the world's second largest platinum miner, have not been slow to register their disapproval of the scheme, with the proposed bill already causing a storm.

After initial reports from state-owned media suggested the plans were all but rubber-stamped, it emerged late last month that President Mugabe was to personally censure those who had 'inadvertently' spoken out on the subject.

Speaking in Harare, President Mugabe has again moved to defuse the potentially embarrassing fight with the mining industry, claiming the plans were just a work in process.

"There is no policy in place just yet and the present furore is needless," Reuters reported him saying.

"This is [a] paper that is at a very early stage of discussion in government."

Under the plans the government would assume 51 per cent in foreign mining companies based in the country.


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