Online Reporter
Oliver Kazunga
Senior Reporter
A LEADING United Kingdom-based mining consultancy projects that Zimbabwe could overtake South Africa as Africa’s largest platinum producer in the coming years, citing the country’s vast untapped resources, favourable geology and a wave of new mining investments.
This comes as South Africa’s ageing platinum mines become deeper and more expensive to operate, while Zimbabwe’s relatively shallow deposits along the Great Dyke offer greater scope for lower-cost, mechanised mining and production expansion.
Presenting an outlook on the global platinum group metals (PGM) industry at the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) annual conference in Victoria Falls recently, SFA Oxford principal analyst Mr RJ Coetzee said Zimbabwe was well-positioned to become one of the world’s most important future sources of platinum.
“These mines are getting deeper and deeper, and this is where Zimbabwe has a real advantage because your mines are relatively shallower,” he said.
“The Great Dyke as a whole is less developed, meaning there is an opportunity for shallower mining as well as mechanisation, which is simply not possible with the ageing mines in South Africa.”
South Africa holds more than 80 percent of the world’s platinum reserves, while Zimbabwe has the second-largest deposits.
According to the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC), more than 78 percent of global platinum group metal reserves are concentrated in Southern Africa, mainly within South Africa’s Bushveld Complex and Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke.
The council estimates that Zimbabwe hosts about 32 million ounces of platinum group metals.
Mr Coetzee said Zimbabwe was among the few countries with substantial undeveloped platinum resources capable of supporting the industry’s next phase of growth.
The assessment comes at a time when the global platinum market is undergoing significant change.
Platinum prices have rebounded strongly over the past 18 months following supply disruptions in major producing countries, lower-than-expected Russian output and rising demand from China, which has emerged as a major consumer of the precious metal.
The recovery has renewed investor interest in platinum mining while increasing the importance of identifying new, competitive sources of supply.
Zimbabwe’s platinum industry is currently anchored by Zimplats, Mimosa and Unki Mine, while several major projects are expected to add significant new production capacity.
These include the US$4,2 billion Karo Resources platinum project, Great Dyke Investments, now operating under the Mutapa Platinum Group, and Bravura, whose projects are at different stages of development.
Mutapa Platinum Group chief executive Mr Munashe Shava said the company had redesigned its development strategy to accelerate production.
“We have remodelled our plan from a predominantly underground operation that was initially targeted,” he said.
“We are now working on an opencast model, which should run for more than 10 years while concurrently developing underground operations.
“It is one way of overcoming the development inertia and the failure to start.”
Although official statistics show Zimbabwe’s PGM production declined last year, stronger international prices significantly boosted export earnings.
According to the Platinum Producers Association, platinum production fell to 17 882 kilogrammes in 2025 from 18 911kg in 2024, while palladium output declined to 14 620kg from 15 603kg over the same period.
However, association chairperson Mr Alex Mhembere said export earnings increased substantially.
“Despite output for key elements in the PGM basket decreasing during the period under review, PGM exports increased to US$1,9 billion in 2025 from US$1,5 billion in 2024,” he said.
“This, in large part, reflected a strong recovery in prices for key elements of the PGM basket during 2025.”
Platinum is a critical industrial metal used primarily in automotive catalytic converters, where it helps reduce harmful vehicle emissions.
It is also widely used in the chemical and petroleum refining industries, electronics and medical equipment.
Despite Zimbabwe’s favourable outlook, Mr Coetzee warned that the country’s success would ultimately depend on maintaining competitiveness as global supply expands.
“There is not going to be enough demand for the production that all these assets plan on producing,” he said.
“Ultimately, we are going to see some production cuts, and the question is where they will occur. We ideally do not want them to be in Zimbabwe.”
He said Zimbabwe’s existing platinum mines already compared favourably with many mature South African operations because of their lower operating costs.
“If we look at the cost curve, the Zimbabwean assets perform somewhat better than the ageing western assets in South Africa.
“With South Africa’s platinum industry facing rising costs and ageing infrastructure, we believe Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke could become one of the most important sources of future global platinum supply, placing the country at the centre of the industry’s next growth phase.
“So, there is space for greenfield operations,” he said.
