Zimbabwe’s aggressive drive towards mineral value addition is beginning to yield tangible results, with the platinum group metals (PGMs) and lithium sectors recording significant progress over the past year.
According to official figures presented at the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference held on Friday, the mining industry generated a record-breaking US$5.9 billion in export earnings in 2024, up from US$5.4 billion in 2023. This growth was largely driven by a 24 percent surge in international gold prices, alongside the success of beneficiation policies being enforced by the Second Republic.
The outgoing Chamber of Mines President, Mr Thomas Gono, outlined how Zimbabwe is making critical headway in domestic processing, particularly in the PGMs sector. “Following the roadmap agreed between the Government and the PGMs industry, mandating matte production as the minimum beneficiation threshold, the industry now boasts adequate smelting capacity. All concentrates are currently being processed locally, and producers without smelters are toll-processing their materials at Zimplats,” said Mr Gono.
The lithium industry is also seeing a strategic shift towards local processing, aligned with Zimbabwe’s broader value-addition policy. “In the lithium sector, stakeholders and Government have agreed that lithium sulphate, rather than lithium carbonate, will serve as the minimum beneficiation level. This reflects the technical and economic reality that lithium sulphate is more viable for Zimbabwe’s hard rock lithium. Processing facilities are under development and are expected to become operational between 2026 and 2027,” Mr Gono added.
The Government is not only focused on value addition but is also doubling down on environmental accountability in the mining sector. Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Honourable Winston Chitando, issued a stern warning to mining companies responsible for environmental degradation, particularly in coal mining regions. “In some coal mining areas, public roads are completely gone. That must stop. His Excellency, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, will launch the Responsible Mining Initiative II in July, a comprehensive framework to address environmental indiscipline across the mining sector,” Minister Chitando revealed.
Looking ahead, the mining sector is expected to maintain its momentum, with a projected growth of 5.6% in 2025. Expansion projects in the gold and coal industries are anticipated to fuel this growth, with export earnings forecast to exceed US$6 billion. Continued high global gold prices and domestic beneficiation efforts are poised to bolster Zimbabwe’s journey towards becoming a regional mining powerhouse and achieving its Vision 2030 goal of an upper middle-income economy.
With beneficiation efforts now embedded in national economic policy and backed by measurable outcomes, Zimbabwe’s mining sector appears set not only to grow, but to grow smart, capturing more value from its vast natural resources while safeguarding the environment for future generations.
