Mining houses in Zimbabwe are holding their breath as the country’s citizens the majority of whom are employed at several mines across the country brace up for elections tomorrow.

Mark Wellesley-Wood, the chief executive of one of Zimbabwe’s biggest gold producing mines said: "There are investment funds waiting in the wings" should Zimbabwe's leadership change and the economic outlook improve. "We are hunkered down. It's been survival and preparation."

"I am certain that if there is political change, the turnaround will be quick," said Greg Hunter, the chief executive of Central African Gold, which bought two Zimbabwean gold mines last year and is considering expansion.

Metallon is ready to expand, as is Impala Platinum (Implats), the world's second-biggest platinum producer, which is delaying portions of an expansion plan valued at $750 million (about R6 billion now) in 2005.

Implats is limited to boosting annual output to 160 000 ounces by 2010, from just under 100 000 ounces last year, about 5 percent of the firm's total output.

As recently as 1999, Anglo American planned to boost its Zimbabwe gold output tenfold. Instead, it sold ferrochrome smelters and nickel mines.

Robertson said coal and iron ore production had more than halved since 2000, while nickel and ferrochrome output had fallen by about 15 percent.

Meanwhile, platinum and ferrochrome prices have more than doubled in four years, and gold is at all-time highs.

Mugabe's decimation of the commercial farming sector since his 1999 land redistribution programme has slashed export earnings. Earlier this month, he approved laws to compel foreign firms to sell 51 percent of their local assets to black Zimbabweans.

"The investment climate is a tricky one," said Implats chief executive David Brown. "Zimbabwe has a lot going for it. It needs stability."

In December 2006, the government seized a diamond concession from African Consolidated Resources.

Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, an analyst at US-based political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said: "They have the mineral resources; it's only the presence of Mugabe that makes the West uncomfortable. Once he has gone, there will be a sense of relief."

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