Zimbabwe’s national grid power demand is projected to surge from 2 200 megawatts (MW) to 5 000 MW by 2030, largely driven by growing demand from the mining sector, a stockbroking and equities research firm has said.
IH Securities, in its third quarter 2025 (Q3 2025) equity strategy report, said the local mining sector had seen significant growth under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), covering the period 2020 to 2025.
“The strategy for the sector has broadly concentrated towards enhancing investment in exploration, beneficiation and value addition as well as levelling the field to accommodate small-scale miners,” reads the IH report.
The Government expects ongoing and new mining projects around the country to lay the foundation for Vision 2030 of an upper middle-income economy through a focus on value addition and beneficiation.
Currently, several mining companies are engaged in different projects aimed at improving capacity, efficiency and value addition.
Zimbabwe has over 40 different minerals, dominated by platinum group metals (PGM), chrome, gold, coal, lithium and diamonds.
It also hosts the second-largest PGMs deposits and high-grade chromium ores in the world, approximately 2,8 billion tonnes of PGM and 10 billion tonnes of chromium ore.
The sector accounts for about 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 80 percent of national exports.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, the sectoral contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) of the mining sector has grown from a historical average of 12,8 percent to a new base of 14,5 percent.
IH highlighted that whilst gold exports have done relatively well to date, global appetite for palladium has slowed owing to shifts in the automotive industry and emerging technologies.
It said production of the metal slid 9 percent in the first half of 2025, whilst platinum production fell 7 percent in the same period.
“Output contraction was, however, not limited only to PGMs, as other minerals such as nickel and copper retreated 21 percent and 25 percent, respectively,” reads the IH report.
IH said, forward-looking, the expectation was that prices of PGMs and base metals would remain depressed, whilst gold prices may remain in favourable territory.
This comes as gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refiners (FPR) for the nine months to September 2025 are up 37 percent to 32,98 tonnes.
As of September, the value of gold exported is up 98,7 percent compared to the prior comparable period, to US$3,2 billion.
“In this regard, overall growth for the sector is expected at a slower 2,9 percent from the initial 5,3 percent, before growing 5,5 in 2026,” IH said.
Meanwhile, multiple expansions in capacity, including by Zimplats and Karo Mining, are expected to result in continuous growth in Zimbabwe’s production of platinum group metals.
The local platinum industry is expected to contribute US$2 billion to total mining output.- Herald
