Online Reporter
Nelson Gahadza
Senior Business Reporter
The Government has expressed satisfaction with progress at the Karo Platinum Mine project in Mhondoro, describing it as one of the flagship investments under the Second Republic.
The Karo Mining project will be a significant addition to Zimbabwe’s pipeline of PGM mines currently under development.
Zimbabwe has three active PGM mines owned by South African firms Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats), which holds controlling equity in Zimplats, Valterra Platinum, formerly Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), and Mimosa Mining Company, jointly owned by Implats and Sibanye-Stillwater on a 50-50 basis.
Mines and Mining Development Minister, Dr Polite Kambamura, gave the update on progress thus far during a tour of the Karo platinum project earlier today, noting that significant milestones had been achieved since the project was launched in 2018.
“This is one of the signature projects of the Second Republic. They got this land in 2018 and His Excellency (President Mnangagwa) did groundbreaking here in 2018. Since then, they have been running around, working on the project,” he said.
He noted that the project has made steady progress from exploration to plant construction, with extensive drilling work already completed.
“They did an exploration of about 90 000 meters, about 90 kilometres of drilling. They did not stop there but went further to start construction works and the civil works are 100 percent complete,” he said.
Minister Kambamura also highlighted the strong local content component of the project, particularly during the civil works activities.
“The civil works were done by Zimbabweans. Just imagine the designs being done in South Africa and implemented in Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans,” he said.
He said the ministry was also encouraged by the project’s employment potential, noting that Karo Platinum would create about 1 000 direct jobs, while currently supporting around 8 400 indirect jobs.
“The project is one of those projects that the ministry is excited about. The mine, Karo, is targeting first production in the first half of 2027, with construction and mining activities being undertaken in parallel ahead of that milestone,” he said.
Minister Kambamura noted that the Karo Platinum Project’s life-of-mine was estimated at 50 years.
Karo Holdings country manager, Mr Joel Zimba, said the project represented a major capital investment, with phase one alone valued at about US$550 million.
“The project is a big investment; this is only phase one of the project, worth about US$550 million investment and to date we have spent over US$190 million on development,” he said.
He said while significant capital expenditure was still required, the company had carefully managed its resources.
“There is still quite a bit of spend ahead of us, but you can see clearly how we have optimised our spend to develop a project of this magnitude,” he said.
Mr Zimba also highlighted that Karo’s Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) listing had played a key role in mobilising local capital for the project.
“The VFEX listing, which was actually the first of its kind, helped us to be able to raise about US$36,7 million on the VFEX, which allowed some of the local financial institutions and pension funds to participate,” he said.
He said the funding model enabled local institutions to earn strong returns while supporting a strategic domestic investment.
“It is a unique way to fund a project, a local project, using some of the local resources that are in-country,” Mr Zimba said.
He reiterated that the Karo Platinum Project remained on track for first production in the first half of 2027, with construction and mining activities progressing simultaneously.
“There is still a lot of construction, but we are running parallel with the mining and we have already started to develop the capacity to do so,” he said.
Mr Zimba said improving platinum group metals (PGM) international prices were also supportive of the project’s outlook.
“PGM prices have been trending in the right direction and that helps in a big way. We have had a tough period for a long time, but it’s nice to see that they are coming up,” he said.
He described the project as part of the next generation of platinum production in Zimbabwe.
“The current project really represents the next generation of platinum production in this country and it’s a fantastic opportunity to see something like that growing and obviously take over as some of the older mines retire,” Mr Zimba said.
Karo Platinum head of processing, Mr Qhubekani Moyo, said the concentrator plant had been designed to process 220 000 tonnes of ore per month.
“We will be receiving our ore at a grade of 3,3 grammes per tonne, between 2,8 grammes per tonne and 3.3 grammes per tonne from the mine,” Mr Moyo said.
He said the plant would use a two-stage milling process followed by flotation, targeting a recovery rate of 83 percent.
“From the 220 000 tonnes of ore that we treat in a month, we aim to produce 5,000 tonnes of concentrate, which we are going to be selling out to the market,” he said.
Mr Moyo said the plant was scheduled for commissioning in the first half of 2027 and would require 27 megawatts of installed power, supported by both grid electricity and a planned 30-megawatt solar plant.
“We are setting up a 30 megawatt solar plant and the power of the solar plant will only be able to sustain us during the day and for the evening, we will be relying on the national grid,” he said.
