London- and JSE-listed Tharisa Mining subsidiary Karo Mining, in Zimbabwe, has confirmed that the first concrete pour at the Karo mining project took place in June after construction of bulk earthworks began in December.

The Karo mine low-cost, openpit platinum group metals (PGMs) asset is under construction and located on the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe. Its development will comprise the opening of four openpits sequentially. The first pit to be developed will have a strike length of 7.6 km and an ultimate pit depth of 99 m, with a life of six years. Thereafter, the other pits will be developed.

Also in June, openpit pilot mining started with the objective of optimising the mining methods and producing ore to further test and refine metallurgical processing. At nameplate capacity, Karo will process about 2.5-million tonnes a year of ore and produce 190 000 oz/y of six-element PGMs.

As at June 30, Karo employed 540 people on site, of which 99 are Karo employees, with the balance being contractor employees. Most of these employees are drawn from the local community. Karo reported that, by the end of June, the project had attained 536 363 lost-time-injury- and fatality-free hours.

MANAGEMENT CHANGES

During the third quarter, Gloria Zvaravanhu was appointed as an independent nonexecutive director and chairperson of the audit committee, while Rachel Rhodes resigned on June 5, whereupon Andrew Henwood was appointed FD.

Zvaravanhu is a chartered accountant and an accomplished professional with several postgraduate qualifications including a Master's degree in Business Leadership from the University of South Africa and a Master's degree in International Business Law from the University of Cumbria in the UK.

Zvaravanhu is the MD of an insurance company in Zimbabwe, and previously held senior roles across numerous companies including KPMG. She is also an experienced nonexecutive director with board experience on several Zimbabwean companies and is an advisory board member of the International Federation of Accountants.

She is an alumnus of the Fortune 500 Global Women Mentoring Programme, where she was mentored by one of the '50 Most Powerful Women in Business' in the US. In addition, she has received several business accolades in Zimbabwe in recognition of her leadership skills and commercial acumen.

Henwood is a qualified industrial engineer and chartered accountant with 25 years of corporate finance, financial reporting and capital markets experience in the natural resources, chemicals, fintech and advisory sectors. He has worked across numerous jurisdictions and has been part of many mergers and acquisitions, as well as restructuring and capital-raising transactions.

Prior to joining Tharisa, Henwood held senior roles at EY, Omnia, Tyme Bank and De Beers.