Per the group’s CEO, Munashe Shava, Mutapa Platinum has selected Darwendale, a town in the country’s Mashonaland West province, located approximately 62 km west of Harare, for its new platinum mining operations.
The region is said to boast around 44 million ounces of platinum-group metals.
Assuming adherence to the projected timeline, Mutapa Platinum Group expects to commence the project by the close of the first quarter of the year.
“We have also done a collaborative approach for the development of the asset, where we are looking at other producers or other miners who are already in the game to try and see how to collaborate with them to fast-track the development,” Shava said at a press conference in the country’s capital, Harare.
The CEO, who did not disclose any names, revealed that the company is in an advanced stage with partners, where finance is now nearly ready.
As reported by Bloomberg, a key component of the government’s strategy to expand the number of PGM businesses in the nation is the Darwendale project.
After South Africa and Russia, Zimbabwe has the third-largest platinum reserves in the world.
Following a record-setting performance last week, the metal’s price subsequently declined by nearly 30%, attributable to a broader selloff in the precious metals market.
The CEO stated that the open-pit mine is projected to have a lifespan of seven to ten years, and Mutapa Platinum is currently estimating the project’s capital expenditure.
“We are open to anybody who has got the proper color of money to come into the project,” Shava said.
He also noted that the project will likely take an etinmated $500 million to fully develop, the same amount currently raised to inaugurate Africa’s first lithium sulphate plant in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s lithium plant
The lithium plant, spearheaded by the largest lithium producer in Zimbabwe, Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe (PLZ), and financed by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co, a Chinese high-tech enterprise, has reached its equipment commissioning phase.
This denotes that the plant, situated at Huayou’s Bikita Mine, which has drawn in approximately $500 million in investments, is almost done.
PLZ endeavors to provide significant socioeconomic improvements in addition to increased industrial output.
Along with aiding the Southern African country’s greater industrialization efforts, the initiative will invest in local infrastructure, environmental management, healthcare, and education, as well as boost community development.
Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, a Chinese company, said in October 2025 that it will start producing lithium sulphate from the plant in Q1 2026.
The lithium facility is said to be capable of producing over 600,000 metric tons of lithium sulphate per year.
