Zimbabwe’s State-owned Mutapa Platinum Group has secured $100-million to develop its Darwendale project.
“We reached financial closure on the project at the end of last month and secured $100-million,” Patrick Maseva-Shayawabaya, CEO of sister company Mutapa Gold, told Bloomberg News in an interview from the capital, Harare. “Civil works are now beginning,” he said, following a briefing on the platinum project on Monday.
The Darwendale project, 65 km west of Harare, has an estimated resource of 44-million ounces of platinum group of metals. Mine production is expected to start next year.
Zimbabwe has the world’s third-largest platinum reserves, after South Africa and Russia. Mining in the southern African country is currently dominated by three South African companies: Impala Platinum Holdings, Sibanye-Stillwater and Valterra Platinum.