Zimbabwe's platinum comes from three mines on the Great Dyke, a 2,575-million-year-old layered intrusion that also makes the country the world's third-largest primary platinum source. Zimplats, Unki and Mimosa work three sub-chambers of the Dyke's Main Sulphide Zone, and a fourth mine, Karo Platinum, is under construction. This page sets out the geology behind that output, each mine's current production, Zimbabwe's platinum, palladium and rhodium reserves against South Africa and Russia, and the indigenisation and export-levy policies that shape the country's platinum sector.
Where Zimbabwe's Platinum Comes From: The Great Dyke#
The Great Dyke is a ~550 km long, ~11 km wide layered intrusion running north to south through central Zimbabwe, dated at 2,575.4 ± 0.7 million years old by U-Pb zircon dating, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Professional Paper 1802-N. It covers an areal extent of about 3,100 square kilometers and reaches a cumulate thickness of 3,350 meters, split into an Ultramafic Sequence up to 2,200 meters thick and an overlying Mafic Sequence up to 1,150 meters thick. The Dyke is subdivided north to south into the Musengezi sub-chamber, the Hartley Complex (comprising the Darwendale and Sebakwe sub-chambers) and a southern chamber made up of the Selukwe and Wedza sub-chambers, the last of which hosts Mimosa. Zimbabwe's mines sit inside the wider platinum group metals market, which the Great Dyke's ore supplies alongside South Africa's Bushveld Complex and Russia's Norilsk-Talnakh deposit.
Great Dyke Geology: Age, Size and the Main Sulphide Zone#
The Main Sulphide Zone (MSZ) is a 2 to 3 meter thick ore horizon, locally up to 20 meters, sitting 10 to 50 meters below the contact between the Ultramafic and Mafic Sequences, in the P1 pyroxenite. Unlike the Bushveld's reefs, the MSZ is not hosted in or against a chromitite seam. The zone carries a palladium-dominant lower section and a platinum-dominant upper section, with roughly 80% of the Dyke's palladium locked in pentlandite while platinum occurs almost entirely as discrete platinum-group minerals, a distinction that makes platinum recovery a liberation problem and palladium recovery partly a sulphide-flotation problem, per Oberthür and co-workers' 2013 summary in the Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Grade and tonnage vary by sub-chamber, as the four main Great Dyke deposits documented by the USGS show.
| Deposit | Tonnage (Mt) | Platinum grade (g/t) | Palladium grade (g/t) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zimplats Ngezi | 1,700 | 1.77 | 1.37 |
| Zimplats Hartley | 220 | 2.00 | 1.55 |
| Bokai and Unki | 210 | 1.88 | 1.48 |
| Mimosa (Main) | 140 | 1.81 | 1.41 |
Source: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1802-N, Table N10 (2012 grade and tonnage data).
Zimbabwe's Place in World Platinum Supply#
Zimbabwe is the world's third-largest primary platinum source, supplying 513,000 ounces in 2025, 9.2% of world primary platinum, according to Johnson Matthey's PGM Market Report of May 2026. The Great Dyke itself holds an estimated 8% of world platinum-group-element resources, well behind the Bushveld Complex's 72% and ahead of Norilsk-Talnakh's 10%, per the same USGS professional paper. That smaller resource base, concentrated in three producing mines rather than dozens of shafts, is what makes Zimbabwe's output easier to track mine by mine than South Africa's.
Zimbabwe's Three Platinum Mines#
Zimbabwe has three operating platinum mines: Zimplats, Unki and Mimosa, plus one non-operational mine, Hartley Platinum at Makwiro, and one under construction, Karo Platinum.
| Mine | Operator / ownership | Method | FY2025 PGM output | Change y/y |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zimplats | Impala Platinum, ~87% | Mechanised bord-and-pillar | 606,000 oz 6E in matte | -6% |
| Unki | Valterra Platinum, 100% | Mechanised trackless bord-and-pillar | 219,700 oz PGM | -8% |
| Mimosa | Impala Platinum 50% / Sibanye-Stillwater 50% | Mechanised bord-and-pillar | 254,000 oz 6E | -1% |
Source: Implats results commentary for the year ended 30 June 2025; Valterra Platinum Integrated Report 2025. Production bases differ (6E and PGM); do not divide one producer's total by another's without matching the basis.
Zimplats: Ngezi and the Selous Metallurgical Complex#
Zimplats, 87% owned by Impala Platinum, produced 606,000 ounces of 6E metal in matte in FY2025, 6% less than a year earlier, milling 7.47 million tonnes at 3.37 g/t across its Ngwarati, Rukodzi, Mupfuti, Bimha and Mupani mines on the Great Dyke's Ngezi sub-chamber, before smelting the concentrate at its Selous Metallurgical Complex. Zimplats commissioned a 35 MW solar plant in FY2025 and approved a further 45 MW second phase the same year, according to Implats' FY2025 results, part of the self-generation producers are adding against Zimbabwe's grid constraints.
Unki: Valterra Platinum's Great Dyke Mine#
Unki, wholly owned by Valterra Platinum, produced 219,700 ounces of PGM in FY2025, 8% less than a year earlier, at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,022 per 3E ounce sold, from a mechanised, trackless twin-decline mine 60 km southeast of Gweru. Valterra Platinum reports that Zimbabwe's exchange-control rules require exporters to surrender 30% of proceeds at the official rate, and that more than US$100 million was outstanding from Zimbabwean authorities at 31 December 2025, alongside ZIMRA tax disputes carrying penalties of up to 100% plus interest.
Mimosa: The Wedza Sub-Chamber Joint Venture#
Mimosa, a 50:50 joint venture between Impala Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater on the Great Dyke's Wedza sub-chamber, produced 254,000 ounces of 6E metal in FY2025, 1% less than a year earlier, milling 2.91 million tonnes at 3.61 g/t. Sibanye-Stillwater's own 30 June 2025 impairment assumption gives Mimosa a life of mine of just 8 years, the shortest of Zimbabwe's three operating mines.
Karo Platinum: The Mine Under Construction#
Karo Platinum, a development project of Tharisa plc's Karo Mining Holdings subsidiary on the Great Dyke, was installing ball mills and expanding the Chirundazi Dam through FY2025, according to Tharisa's own reporting. Tharisa has not published the project's planned capacity, ownership percentage or capital cost through a source that could independently confirm them, so none of those figures appear here.
Zimbabwe's Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium Production and Reserves#
Zimbabwe's mines produced 513,000 ounces of platinum, 422,000 ounces of palladium and 45,000 ounces of rhodium in 2025, according to Johnson Matthey's PGM Market Report of May 2026.
Production by Metal, 2024 to 2026#
Johnson Matthey forecasts Zimbabwean platinum output of 515,000 ounces in 2026, up from 507,000 ounces in 2024, with palladium and rhodium following a similar path.
| Metal | 2024 (koz) | 2025 (koz) | 2026f (koz) | 2025 world share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platinum | 507 | 513 | 515 | 9.2% |
| Palladium | 419 | 422 | 424 | 6.4% |
| Rhodium | 45 | 45 | 43 | 6.4% |
Source: Johnson Matthey PGM Market Report, May 2026. Never mixed with the U.S. Geological Survey's separate country-production series, which uses a different basis.
Zimbabwe's mine output is one part of platinum supply by country, which South Africa still dominates by a wide margin.
Zimbabwe's PGM Reserves vs South Africa and Russia#
The U.S. Geological Survey puts Zimbabwe's PGM reserves at 1.3 million kilograms, around 41.8 million troy ounces, against South Africa's 63 million kilograms, in its Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026.
| Country | PGM reserves (kg) |
|---|---|
| United States | 590,000 |
| Canada | 310,000 |
| Russia | 11,000,000 |
| South Africa | 63,000,000 |
| Zimbabwe | 1,300,000 |
| World | >76,000,000 |
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. Russia's figure carries an A+B+C1 reporting-basis footnote not fully reconciled in this table.
Zimbabwe's Platinum Policy: Indigenisation and Export Levies#
Two Zimbabwean policies bear on platinum mining: the 2008 Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act and a 15% export levy on unrefined platinum, both with an unverified current application to the sector.
Zimbabwe's platinum policy has three recurring elements.
- The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, passed in September 2007 and signed into law on 9 March 2008 [Chapter 14:33], required at least 51% of businesses to transfer to indigenous Zimbabweans, defined by disadvantage predating 18 April 1980. Whether later amendments narrowed or removed this requirement for platinum mining is not established from a verified primary source, so this page does not state the Act's current scope.
- A 15% export levy on unrefined, unbeneficiated platinum, reported in February 2015, has been the subject of repeated deferment requests from producers, most recently in October 2016 and February 2022, when the Zimbabwe Platinum Producers' Association, representing Valterra, Impala and Sibanye-Stillwater, sought deferment from Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube. Whether the levy is currently in force, suspended or repealed is not established.
- Zimbabwe's 2026 national budget, announced 28 November 2025, extended similar export taxation to other raw minerals, a 2% coal levy and a 10% unprocessed-lithium export tax from 1 January 2026, without naming platinum group metals among the measures. Zimbabwe's platinum mines are not government-owned; they belong to the publicly listed companies described above and their shareholders.
Zimbabwe Platinum and the Wider PGM Market#
Zimbabwe's platinum mines sit inside the wider platinum group metals market, alongside the Bushveld Complex and the world supply and deficit picture.
Related Platinum Group Metal Resources#
Zimbabwe's producers and the Great Dyke's counterpart deposits each have their own page on this site.
- Bushveld Complex: the South African intrusion that hosts 72% of world PGM resources, more than eight times the Great Dyke's share.
- Platinum supply by country: how Zimbabwe's mine output compares with South Africa, Russia and North America.
- Platinum market deficit: the multi-year shortfall between world platinum supply and demand.
Zimbabwe Platinum FAQ#
Who owns Zimbabwe's platinum mines?#
Zimbabwe's three operating platinum mines are owned by Impala Platinum (Zimplats, ~87%), Valterra Platinum (Unki, 100%) and a 50:50 joint venture between Impala Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater (Mimosa).
How much platinum does Zimbabwe produce?#
Zimbabwe produced 513,000 ounces of platinum in 2025, 9.2% of world primary supply, according to Johnson Matthey's PGM Market Report of May 2026.
What are Zimbabwe's platinum reserves?#
Zimbabwe holds 1.3 million kilograms of PGM reserves, about 41.8 million troy ounces, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026.
Is Zimbabwe rich in platinum?#
Zimbabwe ranks well behind South Africa, whose 63 million kilograms of PGM reserves and roughly 72% share of world PGE resources make it the metal's richest country by a wide margin; Zimbabwe's Great Dyke holds an estimated 8% of world PGE resources.
What are platinum's symbol, atomic number and CAS number?#
Platinum has the symbol Pt, atomic number 78 and CAS number 7440-06-4. The full profile for platinum (Pt), element 78 covers its physical and chemical properties in depth.