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CAPE TOWN — At the heart of Zimbabwe’s push for large-scale mining investment lies a critical divide: the solid, operational reality on the ground versus the entrenched risk perceptions held by international financial institutions, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Rudairo Mapuranga
This gap was laid bare by Bernard Pryor, Managing Director of Karo Mining Holdings, who detailed the challenge of financing billion-dollar projects in a country whose geological wealth is often overshadowed by financial caution.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe Mining Forum on the sidelines of the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba, Pryor articulated the dual reality facing project developers.
“We all sit here. We know the reality. We know what works,” he stated. “The perception of lenders is quite often the reverse. It’s all risk, all risk, Zimbabwe risk.”
For Pryor, the “reality” is that Zimbabwe’s premier mining projects, like Karo’s platinum operation on the Great Dyke, meet the essential criteria sought by developers.
“On the project side, I would say there are four things,” he outlined. “One is, is the resource there? Well, that’s on the Great Dyke, quite easy. Is there water? Yes. Is there power? And what about people to execute? So I think we are very comfortable. We can sell that very easily — tick, tick, tick, tick — on the project side.”
This confidence is reflected in the continued activity across the sector. Companies like Invictus Energy are advancing a major gas project, Premier African Minerals is developing lithium assets, and Kavango Resources is exploring for gold and base metals, all betting on the underlying mineral endowment.
The formidable challenge, Pryor explained, emerges when seeking “conventional project finance” from international banks, rather than equity or development finance. For these lenders, the assessment shifts from physical resources to financial security.
“The lenders need fiscal stability so that they’re going to get their money back. And then their goalposts don’t move,” Pryor said, highlighting the first major concern. He welcomed recent government assurances on stable fiscal policy but identified the second, more complex issue: “the currency.”
Lenders providing U.S. dollar loans require repayment in dollars and take security over all project assets.
“The asset is not only the physical assets, but all the bank accounts, all the U.S. dollars, and all the local currency,” Pryor noted.
Zimbabwe’s retention policy, which converts 30% of export earnings to the local currency (ZiG), creates a perceived security risk for financiers.
“How do they view that risk profile of the 70-30 conversion? And lenders look at that differently.”
In response to this environment, mining firms are deploying innovative, hybrid financing models that bypass sole reliance on traditional international banks:
Karo also raised $36.8 million through a dollar-denominated bond on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), a key platform for accessing capital comfortable with the local framework.
Other companies like Invictus and Kavango have leveraged their listings on international exchanges (ASX, LSE) to raise equity, while simultaneously engaging with development finance institutions (DFIs) that have a higher risk tolerance for frontier markets.
Pryor indicated that resolving the impasse requires direct dialogue.
“We’re looking at that now with the government and with lenders and trying to bridge that gap so everybody is happy.” This involves aligning Zimbabwe’s legitimate economic policies with the non-negotiable security requirements of international project finance.
The government’s recent focus at Indaba on clarifying fiscal terms and outlining a measured path to currency reform is a direct effort to address these perceptions. The success of companies in raising capital through alternative routes demonstrates that investment is flowing where structures mitigate perceived risk.
The core of Zimbabwe’s mining narrative is no longer just its geology, but its ability to creatively solve the financing puzzle, turning its tangible on-ground reality into a bankable proposition for the global capital needed to unlock it.
