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Nelson Gahadza

Karo Holdings is confident it will create a business that is sustainable and profitable for the benefit of all stakeholders at its Karo Platinum mine located on the Great Dyke in the country.  

Karo Holdings country manager, Dr Josephat Zimba, said the firm intends to employ locally as far as possible, as such, 1 107 people were employed in 2023, of whom 139 are Karo employees, with 12 percent being female, mainly from the local area.

“We have shown at Tharisa that we have a track record of not only building mines but have created a business that is sustainable and profitable for the benefit of all stakeholders through job creation, upliftment and upskilling, and returns to governments in the form of royalties and taxes.

“While the macro environment has necessitated a lengthening of the Karo development timeline, I am as confident as when we started in 2018 that we will deliver the same outcome for all stakeholders at Karo in the years to come,” he said.

He noted that in total, 71 percent of all females employed, including contractors, are in technical or field programmes, and for the period under review, a total of 1 691 community stakeholders have been engaged, including 1 048 men and 643 women.

Dr Zimba said Karo will be guided by local laws and regulations in the country and best practices globally.

He noted that Zimbabwe has a long history of safe and successful mining, and Karo is set to be a significant contributor to both the economy and delivering a sustainable, long-life integrated mining operation through a proven world-class development approach for projects such as Karo.

The mining lease area for the Karo Platinum project covers an area of 23,903 ha and is situated within a designated special economic zone (SEZ) in the southern portion of the middle chamber of the Great Dyke.

The Great Dyke is a PGM-bearing geological feature that runs north to south. Dr Zimba said construction at the Karo Platinum project officially commenced on December 7, 2022.

He added that a rapid construction timeline was targeted, and the first concrete was poured in June 2023.

“In the same month, open pit pilot mining commenced to optimise the mining methods and produce ore to further test and refine metallurgical processing,” said Dr Zimba.

He said Karo will process approximately 2,5 million metric tons per year of ore at nameplate capacity and produce 190,000 ounces of PGMs (6E basis).

“First ore in mill (FOIM) is now planned for June 2025, and the project team has divided major work streams into smaller commitments to ensure continued development aligned with funding availability.

“These revised work streams are designed to accelerate project implementation should the PGM market become more favourable.

“Positively, manufacturing of key long-lead items is nearing completion, while pilot mining is continuing as planned to optimise mining design,” said Dr Zimba.

Tharisa chief executive Mr Phoevos Pouroulis said the group’s capital allocation is based on the strength of its balance sheet and in line with the need to provide capital in three forms.

These are to keep existing operations well capitalised for the multiple generations that they will serve, to allocate capital to growth and innovation in a non-renewable resource environment, and to return capital to shareholders.

Mr Pouroulis said the decision to extend the Karo Platinum Project timeline ties in with the group’s strict capital discipline policy, and it believes that there is market support in alignment with the decision.

“While current markets are volatile and unpredictable, we believe in the medium-term outlook for PGMs underpinned by a supply-side constrained economy with new and growing applications of these precious metals. This belief in the PGM market is supported by a robust chrome market driven by real demand,” he said.

However, the group’s revenue for 2023 amounted to US$649,9 million, a 5,3 percent increase from 2022’s US$686,0 million, as a result of the decline in PGM prices offset by the uptick in realized chrome prices.

The group said that with anticipated increases in demand emanating from the stainless-steel industry, realised chrome prices are expected to remain firm.

PGM revenue for the period contributed 30,5 percent of the total revenue, at US$198,5 million.

Zimbabwe’s platinum production continues to increase on the back of continuous investments into capacity by the producing companies over the years. 

Zimbabwe is known to have the world’s second biggest known deposits of platinum after South Africa.