The Karo Platinum Project in Zimbabwe has secured a five-year offtake agreement with Valterra Platinum, covering the purchase of platinum group metals and other metals produced at the project. The deal strengthens the Karo Platinum Project’s path towards first production, which is expected in 2027.
The agreement, announced on Thursday, carries an initial five-year term. Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed. Under the deal, Valterra will purchase PGM-bearing material and other metals produced at Karo once the project reaches production.
The offtake agreement follows closely on from a 25-year special mining lease signed between Karo and the Zimbabwean government earlier in the week. That lease secured the project’s rights to develop the mine and established the fiscal terms that will apply to operations. Together, the two agreements represent important steps forward for the Karo Platinum Project as it advances through its development phase.
Karo Secures Five-Year PGM Offtake Agreement
Tharisa has invested more than $240 million in the Karo Platinum Project to date. Construction at the site began in 2022, with pilot mining starting in 2023. However, the project’s development has taken longer than initially expected, having been affected by weaker platinum group metals prices and the need to finalise fiscal arrangements with the government.
First production at Karo is now expected in 2027. The first phase of the project is designed to produce about 226,000 ounces of platinum group metals a year once full production is reached. The project sits on Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke, one of the country’s most significant mineral belts and a well-known source of PGM mineralisation.
Karo holds an open-pit mineral reserve of 2.1 million ounces of PGMs, calculated using platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. If potential underground mining is included, the project could support a mine life of more than 50 years.
Karo Platinum is 85% owned by Karo Mining Holdings, with the Zimbabwean government holding the remaining 15% through Generation Minerals. Tharisa owns 78.81% of Karo Mining Holdings.
Valterra Adds Karo Supply to Zimbabwe Portfolio
Valterra operates the Unki platinum mine in Zimbabwe, located about 200 kilometres from Karo, and has processing facilities that handle PGM-bearing material. Valterra said the agreement would add Karo’s production to its portfolio of material sourced from other mining companies.
Valterra CEO Craig Miller said the agreement reflected the company’s confidence in the fundamentals of the PGM market and in Tharisa’s ability to develop the Karo Platinum Project on the high-quality mineralised zone of the Great Dyke.
Tharisa CEO Phoevos Pouroulis said the PGM offtake agreement with Valterra provided offtake certainty as the Karo Platinum Project advances towards first production.
The deal adds commercial structure to the project’s development at a time when securing reliable offtake arrangements is an important consideration for new platinum group metals producers entering the market. With construction and pilot mining already under way, the focus now turns to bringing the Zimbabwe platinum project into production within the expected timeframe.