The Sunday Mail
Nelson Gahadza
Government has said it is satisfied with progress made by mining sector players towards mineral beneficiation in line with the Government’s quest for a US$12 billion mining industry by 2023.
This comes as the government has, over the past five years, been exploring possible methods of ensuring beneficiation of minerals, with policies targeting mostly platinum, diamonds, gold and chrome mining with the intention to unlock the backward and forward linkages in the mining sector so as to create jobs.
Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister, Dr Polite Kambamura, said some sector players have made progress and commitments while others are yet to bring in their comprehensive plans.
“Mineral beneficiation is work in progress, some have already started and these are within the diamond and platinum group metals (PGM’s) subsectors,” he said in an interview.
It is estimated that while Zimbabwe can produce up to 25 percent of the world’s supply in diamonds, it has not made much by way of foreign currency earnings.
If Zimbabwe adopts diamond beneficiation, the country stands to earn over US$8 billion annually and create 200,000 jobs.
On the other hand, platinum mining in Zimbabwe is done by three subsidiaries of South African firms, namely Zimplat, Unki and Mimosa.
Mimosa and Unki export platinum as concentrates while Zimplats exports as matte. In the chrome industry, the government is not content with the level of beneficiation at smelting level, and has given ultimatums for the mining firms to have a base metal refinery.
Dr Kambamura said players in the PGM sector have already made inroads and commitments to setting up of base metal refinery as well as the precious metal refinery.
“The US$1,8 million worth of investments committed by Zimplats are testimony to commitment towards mineral beneficiation but there are other players that have not indicated their direction,” he said.
Zimplats as part of their overall capital investment strategy last year approved a budget of US$1,8 billion to be implemented over a 10 year period. The group said implementation of the investment strategy began in 2021, with US$1,2 billion already approved for implementation. Recently, Mr Nico Muller, the chief executive of Zimplats parent company Implats told investors that the company is investing US$521 million to expand smelter capacity, which will be fed by new mines and redevelopment.
“The first platinum matte is scheduled from January 2024 while the acid plant commissioning is expected in August 2024.
“A new concentrator which turns ore into the raw materials for platinum extraction will be completed this year,” he said.
While Zimplats exports platinum mattes, Mimosa, in which Implats has a 50-50 share with Sibanye Stillwater, ships its concentrates to South Africa for smelting.
The new capacity being built now will see all smelting — from Zimplats, Mimosa and possibly other producers — being done locally.
“What that will do is give us an opportunity to smelt Zimplats as well as Mimosa concentrate in Zimbabwe, and therefore qualify us for a dispensation against the export levies for unbeneficiated concentrate,” Muller said.
He added that Zimplats will be independent in Zimbabwe from the South African operations. “It does then, obviously, with the removal of the Mimosa concentrates from our Rustenberg furnaces, create headroom in Rusternberg,” said Mr Muller.
According to Gerhard Potgieter, Implats Chief Operating Officer, Zimbabwe is a key asset for Implats and expanding smelting capacity makes sense.
He said: “One of the reasons why we have agreed to increase that capacity in Zimbabwe is that Zimbabwe is our playground, we know how to mine there, we know how to make money there. So, it just makes sense for us to also benefit from it.”
According to Zimplats, the base metal refinery (BMR) will have a cost of US$540 million and the plant will have capacity for local PGM base metal refining as well as create more than 1000 jobs directly and indirectly. The Zimplats projects resonate well with the government’s quest of the mining sector becoming a US$12 billion industry by 2023 as well as the broader Vision 2030 which seeks to fundamentally transform Zimbabwe to an upper middle income economy by 2030.
Of the US$12 billion, gold, platinum diamonds will contribute US$4 billion, US$3 billion and US$1 billion respectively.
Chrome, iron ore and carbon steel will contribute US$$1 billion while coal and hydrocarbons will contribute the same. Lithium at US$500 000 while other minerals will constitute US$1.5 billion.
Chrome in Zimbabwe is mostly sold as ferrochrome, even though a significant portion is also exported as raw ores. About four major smelters, namely Zimbabwe Mining and Smelting Company; Maranatha; Zimbabwe Alloys; Riochrome, and Oliken in Kwekwe have been the main chrome smelting firms before the coming in of new entrants into the industry, which include some small-scale smelter installations exploiting Dyke ores, Afrochine Smelting (Pvt), a subsidiary of Tsingshan Iron and Steel Group of China.
