Nelson Gahadza, Oct 22, 2025 (The Herald/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
South African mining group Tharisa Capital says the development of its platinum group metals project in Zimbabwe remains firmly on course.
It noted that significant progress has been made to date, despite poor global platinum prices.
Tharisa Capital is a 70 percent shareholder in Karo Mining, which is developing the Karo Platinum Project in Zimbabwe.
Located on Zimbabwe's mineral-rich Great Dyke, the Karo Mining operation will include a 10-year open-pit phase followed by a 30-year underground mine, producing up to 226 000 ounces of PGMs annually.
PGMs generate significant export earnings for Zimbabwe, and alongside gold, account for the bulk of Zimbabwe's exports. Mining in general accounts for over 80 percent of Zimbabwe's export earnings and about 12 percent of gross domestic product.
Tharisa chief executive Mr Phoevos Pouroulis, in a production report for the fourth quarter ending September 30, 2025, said the group continued to see compelling opportunities at Karo.
"Karo Platinum infrastructure work is continuing with ball mills being delivered and installed on site, while work is continuing at the Chirundazi Dam expansion.
"We continue to see compelling growth opportunities in our business, with material advances, despite measured capital allocation, at Karo," he said.
Mr Pouroulis said the group's expansion aspirations were carefully calculated and aligned with its disciplined capital allocation policy.
"This will ensure that we prioritise long-term value creation, balance sheet strength and sustainable returns for our shareholders," he said.
The Karo project is also situated within a designated Special Economic Zone (SEZ), located in the southern portion of the middle chamber of the Great Dyke and supported by good infrastructure, including road and power access in the project area.
Zimbabwe currently has three active platinum producers, namely South Africa-based Impala Platinum owned Zimplats, Valterra Platinum's (South Africa) Unki and Implats and Sibanye-Stillwater jointly owned Mimosa Mining Company.
Several other projects are still under development, including the Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters' Bravura project in Selous and the Great Dyke Investments in Darwendale, which is being developed by State-owned Kuvimba Mining House, the country's largest mining house.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando recently told reporters during the tour of gold milling centres in the Midlands Province that ongoing and new mining projects were setting the foundation for Vision 2030 of an upper middle-income economy through value addition and beneficiation.
Currently, several mining companies are engaged in different projects aimed at improving capacity, efficiency and value addition.
Zimbabwe's mining sector is highly diversified, with more than 60 exploitable minerals, with PGMs, chrome, gold, coal, lithium and diamonds among the most exploited.
The country also boasts the second-largest platinum deposit and high-grade chromium ores in the world, with approximately 2,8 billion tonnes of PGM and 10 billion tonnes of chromium ore, and the sector accounts for about 12 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 80 percent of national exports.
According to Mr Pouroulis, commodities continue to benefit from strong underlying fundamentals.
"Global demand trends, coupled with a constrained and complex supply response, have resulted in a market that is well-supported and structurally balanced.
"This equilibrium underpins our positive outlook as highlighted in our continued long-term investment in our strategic assets," he said.
For the year under review, he said the PGM market, and in particular platinum, has been one of the strongest commodity price performers in 2025, with the continued deficits, constrained supply, and tightening stocks acting as strong tailwinds.
COMTEX_469712232/2029/2025-10-22T09:02:58
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