Name of the Project
Karo Platinum project.

Location
The project is situated on the Great Dyke, in the Mashonaland West district of Zimbabwe.

Project Owner/s
Karo Platinum, which is jointly owned by the government of Zimbabwe and Karo Mining Holdings. Tharisa has a 26.8% stake in Karo Mining Holdings.

Project Description
Theproject is the first of four large projects that will be undertaken as part of a large-scale vertically integrated platinum group metals (PGMs) mining complex.

It is estimated to contain about 96-million ounces at 3.2 g/t on a platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold, or 4E, basis.

Karo will be responsible for the opencast and underground mining of the platinum concession, which is expected to mine an estimated 14.4-million tonnes a year of run-of-mine ore. This material will be processed by Karo Refining.

Karo Refining will treat up to two-million ounces of PGMs a year, providing an additional 600 000 oz capacity for toll refining by other PGMs producers in the country.

The project’s refinery unit will include concentration, smelting and refining functions to produce PGMs, as well as a base metals refinery and a precious metals refinery.

At steady state, the platinum mining complex is expected to produce about 1.4-million ounces of refined PGMs a year, providing an additional 600 000 oz for toll refining to be used by other PGM producers in Zimbabwe, thereby encouraging other producers to beneficiate raw materials before export.

The integrated mining and refining complex includes the establishment of a 300 MW solar power plant, which will feed power into the Zimbabwe electricity grid.

Potential Job Creation
The project could generate up to 15 000 direct jobs and 75 000 indirect jobs across the value chain.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
Not stated.

Planned Start /End Date
The original timelines for the Karo project have been negatively impacted on by the constraints of Covid-19, and the project has incurred a 12-month delay.

Latest Developments
Implementation studies have been completed at the Karo Platinum project.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Karo Mining Holdings, email info@karomining.com.