Mutapa Platinum Group has secured a US$100 million financing facility to restart development of the Darwendale platinum project, with funds already being disbursed and civil works under way at the processing plant, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Ryan Chigoche
The funding moves one of Zimbabwe’s largest undeveloped PGM projects into construction after years of delays over financing and a change in development strategy.
Darwendale has an estimated resource of about 44 million ounces of PGMs, while Mutapa has put the wider development cost at about US$500 million and previously targeted initial throughput of at least 2 million tonnes a year.
Munashe Shava, chief executive of Mutapa Platinum Group, said financial closure had been completed and the company was now executing the first phase of its revised development plan.
“A hundred million facility has already been signed. Disbursement has already begun. As we speak, we are on the ground doing the civils for the plant. We started in earnest around the middle of September, so we are now on the ground and the project is moving,” Shava said.
“The first stage is essentially the plant, supported by the open-pit operation, the bulk infrastructure, the tailings storage facility and the water reticulation. The front end of the plant is designed for 1.2 million tonnes, but the initial flotation section will take 600,000 tonnes. After that first phase, we add another flotation circuit to take the plant up to 1.2 million tonnes,” he said.
Construction is expected to take about 12 months, with Mutapa targeting full production around this time next year.
The plant will initially process 600,000 tonnes a year through its flotation circuit, while the front-end infrastructure will have capacity for 1.2 million tonnes. That configuration allows Mutapa to expand processing capacity by adding a second flotation circuit rather than rebuilding the front end.
The longer-term target is to take Darwendale to about 5 million tonnes a year within five years, Shava said.
That expansion will require a shift from open-pit to underground mining, including the development of two underground mines and further exploration, particularly south of the existing resource.
“1.2 is just scratching the surface and our strategy is to ensure that we reach our optimum operating level within the five-year strategic window that we have put ourselves,” he said.
Darwendale was originally conceived as a large underground project but was derailed by financing constraints and the withdrawal of Russian partner Vi Holdings from Great Dyke Investments, the joint venture that previously controlled the asset.
Kuvimba Mining House, which later controlled the project, shifted to a smaller open-pit development model in 2025, seeking to reduce upfront capital requirements and bring production forward. Mining Zimbabwe reported at the time that the initial open-pit phase was expected to cost about US$50 million.
GDI had invested close to US$100 million in the project by 2023, according to the company at the time, before the Russian partner’s exit forced a rethink of the project’s financing and development structure.
Earlier this year, Mutapa reorganised its mining assets into separate commodity-focused entities, allowing Mutapa Platinum to pursue funding and partnerships directly for Darwendale. Shava said at the time that the company was advancing discussions with funding partners and preparing to resume ground development.
The project, about 65 kilometres west of Harare on Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke, is now moving from financing and planning into physical construction.
The immediate focus is on delivering the first 600,000-tonne flotation phase, while the larger plant and underground expansion provide the pathway towards the 5-million-tonne annual target.
