By Sharyn Macnamara

Zimbabwe will see the Mining and Technical Exhibitions’ (MTE’s) crew in July and August 2024 – for the first time since 2015.

Mining and Technical Exhibitions (MTE) earmarks Zimbabwe for its next over-border combo show.

Mining and Technical Exhibitions (MTE) earmarks Zimbabwe for its next over-border combo show. Pexels | Beate Vogl

Zimbabwe’s mining sector is highly diversified, endowed with close to 40 known minerals – platinum group metals (PGMs), chrome, gold, coal, lithium, and diamonds being major commodity role players. The country boasts the second-largest platinum deposit and high-grade chromium ores in the world, with approximately 2.8 billion tons of PGMs and 10 billion tons of chromium ore.1 The Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe reported that the mining sector accounts for around 12% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)2 and an average of 80%1 of foreign currency earnings. It is therefore no surprise that the mining sector is the area of the economy that the government is focussed on growing to provide much needed employment and the improvement of existing infrastructure. This is precisely why MTE will be running two expos in Zimbabwe this year. On 30 July MTE will set up in Gweru, and on 1 August the company will host the second leg of the tour in Ngezi, Selous.

Andrew Macnamara, operations director at MTE says, “Although there is a lot of investment targeted at Zimbabwe currently, the drop in global platinum and PGM pricing is concerning. As a result, in South Africa we are seeing retrenchments in the PGMs sector. That being said, the discussions to date with operations in Zimbabwe are focused on networking and introducing mining operations in country to new tech and innovation that promise to run operations more efficiently with a focus on saving costs in the long run. We have invited numerous operations within a 150km radius of the expo sites to the tradeshows. Showcasing products and services is just the beginning of the networking process offered at our expos, focussed on face-to-face relationship building.”

 

First stop, Gweru

Gweru will be MTE’s first stop in July. This expo will target mines in the vicinity like the Unki and Mimosa located on the Great Dyke, together with other smaller gold and chrome operations, says Macnamara. The Great Dyke is a PGM-bearing geological feature that runs north to south in Zimbabwe. At approximately 550km in length and up to 11km wide, it is second only to the Bushveld Complex of South Africa in terms of its PGM resource base.3

“Suppliers servicing the platinum, gold and chrome industries would best suit this expo,” says Macnamara as Unki MSZ is the orebody mined by Anglo American Platinum Limited’s Unki operation. The mine produced 62 800 ounces PGMs (total metal in concentrate), in line with the same period in 2022, per the company’s Q1 production report, ended 31 March 2024.4 Mimosa too is PGMs focussed, being a shallow, mechanised and base metal mining operation. This operation comprises three ore bodies – North Hill, South Hill and Far South Hill – which have been explored, drilled, evaluated and converted to the various Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves categories3. The mineralised body known as the Mtshingwe Fault Block occurs as a prospect between the South Hill and Far South Hill orebodies. Platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium along with gold, copper, cobalt and nickel occur within the MSZ.

 

Selous

MTE will set its second expo up at Mulota Hill Golf Course in Ngezi, near the Zimplats operations. Zimplats (87% owned by Implats) is Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum producer. The group’s primary business is producing platinum group metals (primarily platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium) and associated metals (nickel, gold, copper, cobalt, silver), all mined from the Great Dyke.5

The company’s Ngezi operation is located on the Hartley Geological Complex approximately 150km south-west of Harare. This complex is the largest of the PGM bearing complexes, containing 80% of the known PGM resources in Zimbabwe, two-thirds of which is held by Zimplats. The group operates four shallow mechanised underground mines, one open-pit mine, four concentrator plants and a smelter.6 The concentrators process production from the mining operations which is then refined at the Selous Metallurgical Complex (SMC), around 77km north of the underground operations and comprises of a concentrator and smelter. Ore production in 2023 was 7.6 million tonnes with matte and concentrate sold during the year to Impala Platinum Limited, the sole customer, amounting to 603 000 6E ounces. Zimplats’ six elements (6E) consist of five PGMs (platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium and iridium) and gold.

Furthermore, in 2022, Zimplats obtained a 185MW power generation licence and in May 2024 it was reported that the group had already spent USD27-million on the 35MW solar plant project, against a budget of USD37-million. The company has planned phased implementation until it reaches its target production of 185MW in 2028.7

“With over 30 exhibiting companies already booked for this combo tour as at end May 2024, we are looking forward to a successful week in Zimbabwe,” Macnamara concludes.

References:

  1. https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/zimbabwe-mining-and-minerals
  2. Zimbabwe Miners Federation brochure, “Zimbabwe is open for business”.
  3. https://www.mimosa.co.zw/operations/mineral-resources-and-mineral-reserves
  4. https://www.angloamerican.com/~/media/Files/A/Anglo-American-Group-v5/PLC/media/press-release/releases/2024pr/q1-2024-production-report.pdf
  5. https://www.zimplats.com/data/2023/09/annual_financial_statements_2023.pdf
  6. https://www.implats.co.za/pdf/fact-sheets/zimplats-fact-sheet-nov-2016.pdf
  7. https://www.herald.co.zw/zimplats-spends-us27m-on-solar-power-project/