JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Impala Platinum's (Implats') eventual platinum production in Zimbabwe has the potential easily to exceed its South African production, Implats CEO David Brown tells Mining Weekly Online.

Brown says that the production of one-million ounces of platinum in Zimbabwe remains the long-term goal of Implats, which is adopting a wait-and-see approach to Zimbabwe's new government of national unity.

"We have a significant resource in Zimbabwe and, with the right investment climate and with economic stability in that country over a long period of time, Zimbabwe could easily be as big, if not bigger, than our South African operations.

"To be a million-ounce platinum producer in Zimbabwe is still our long-term vision, but quite clearly the investment climate and the economic conditions in Zimbabwe have precluded us from making additional investments to expand at this particular point in time.

"It's probably too soon to tell whether the current change in Zimbabwe will bring the required stability. We need to see how the parties within this new government of national unity are going to work together in terms of the investment climate that they create.

Implats invests large amounts of capital and needs long lead times and therefore long-term stability.

The company already touches the lives of 50 000 Zimbabweans through its Zimplats and Mimosa operations, where an additional R2,3-billion is being invested, and could be "very instrumental" in any economic reconstruction of Zimbabwe.

Despite an extremely challenging operating environment, Zimplats continued to deliver "outstanding performance in all areas of operation" in the six months to December, Brown reports.

Zimplats again milled 1,1-million tons of ore in the six-month period, which, he says, was an excellent result considering the closure of the opencast operation towards the end of the year, for cost reasons.

Zimplats' output increased 15% in the period with 47 000 oz of platinum matte.

He says that Zimplats' costs were "well contained" in dollar terms, rising 5% to $1 350/oz, even though there were higher opencast mining costs and a higher proportion of US dollar-denominated costs.

Zimplats' portal 1 is operational and development of portal 4 is on track for completion later this year and portal 2 has been fully operational since 2006.

The commissioning of the concentrator has been delayed for two months until April owing to a manufacturing fault and capital expenditure of R640-million was spent predominantly on Zimplat's phase one project.

Full production of 180 000 oz a year of refined platinum from Zimplats is scheduled for the 2010 financial year.

"Another sterling performance", Brown says, was delivered from Mimosa, which milled one-million tons for the first time in a six months reporting period in line with its current expansion.

Mimosa production rose to 34 000 oz of platinum in concentrate.

Cost went up 18% to $955/oz. were adversely impacted by the exchange rate regime.

Optimisation has been completed and stead-state production of 100 000 oz of platinum will be achieved this year

Implats employs close on 5 000 people in Zimbabwe and, with the multiplier effect of ten-to-one, some 50 000 people are dependent on its operations in Zimbabwe.

Brown sees that as "quite a moral obligation to those people", and he is hoping for a swift resolution to the current transition.

Producing a million ounces in Zimbabwe's Great Dyke would be ten times more than its current modest output.

The new Implats-linked Kameni is building platinum and chrome mines in Zimbabwe, its CEO Stephen Gorven and CFO Michael Jones, both former Rothschild South Africa executives, report.

Kameni has the Bougai project, close to Anglo Platinum's Unki, on Zimbabwe's Great Dyke.

Jones reports that Zimbabwe has a special policy regime for platinum, which the country has recognised as having the potential to kick-start the economy.

To subscribe to Mining Weekly's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.