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Business Reporter
GREAT Dyke Investments has embarked on large-scale exploration of platinum deposits in Darwendale where it intends to set up an integrated platinum facility at a cost of $4 billion.

More than 40 000 metres of exploratory drilling had been done to date, board member Dr Hesphina Rukato told The Herald Business.

This is out of the total drilling of 300 000 running metres planned for this year and next year to confirm the amount of indicated category resources of the platinum deposit.

“Large-scale exploration work continues in accordance with the long-term strategy of the project which was approved by the board of directors of Great Dyke Investments, in January 2015,” she said.

A consortium of Zimbabwean companies, namely Tandamanzi and SMC are involved in exploration works, she added.

The project of the integrated development of platinum group metals deposit is being implemented by a joint Russian-Zimbabwean company Great Dyke Investments.

President Mugabe, who returned from Russia yesterday met some investors promoting the project and was told “everything is going well”.

“What we promise right now to President Mugabe is that by the beginning of next year, we’ll finish all the exploration in the Great Dyke and we will present on His Excellency full geological information about our licence and then together with our partners, we’ll see the best way of developing,” GDI general manger Igor Higer said.

“The Darwendale Platinum deposit, with an estimated 40 million ounces (1 400 tonnes) PGM resource base, is one of the world’s largest deposits of PGMs,” Dr Rukato said.

The development strategy of the project involves the phased creation of mining and processing production facilities with mining and processing up to 10 million tonnes of ore per year, and smelting facilities that will provide the annual production up to 25 tonnes of platinum group metals.

In the past 8 months, Great Dyke Investment built modern staff quarters, and a block of offices, more than 6km of roads, as well as modern core storage of international standards.

The project is the single largest investment in Zimbabwe after independence in 1980 and is expected to create more than 8 000 jobs. The project will be implemented in three phases with the first stage running between 2015 and 2017, mainly involving exploration and establishment in infrastructure such as roads.

Thereafter, the second phase will begin and involve the opening of two underground mines and a smelter and this is expected to take about five years. An investment of $3 billion will be made during the first and second phases. Between 2022 and 2024, the company will set up a refinery at a cost of $1 billion.