Name of the Project
Karo platinum project.

Location
The project is situated on the Great Dyke, in the Mashonaland West province of Zimbabwe.

Client
Karo Platinum, which is jointly owned by the government of Zimbabwe and Karo Mining Holdings.

Tharisa recently acquired a 26.8% stake in Karo Mining Holdings.

Project Description
The Karo platinum project is the first of four large projects that will be undertaken as part of a large-scale vertically integrated platinum group metals (PGMs) mining complex.

The project is estimated to contain about 96-million ounces at 3.2 g/t on a platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold, or 4E, basis.

Karo will be responsible for the opencast and underground mining of the platinum concession, which is expected to mine an estimated 14.4-million tonnes a year of run-of-mine ore.

This material will be processed by Karo Refining and will include concentration, smelting and refining to produce PGMs and a base metals and precious metals refinery.

At steady state, the platinum mining complex is expected to produce about 1.4-million ounces of refined PGMs a year, providing an additional 600 000 oz for toll refining to be used by other PGM producers in Zimbabwe.

The integrated mining and refining complex includes the establishment of a 300 MW solar power plant, which will feed power into the Zimbabwe electricity grid.

Potential Job Creation
The project could generate up to 15 000 direct and 75 000 indirect jobs across the value chain.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
Not stated.

Duration
The first openpit operation is expected to begin operations in 2020.

Latest Developments
Tharisa is currently completing the environmental-impact (EIA) assessment for the Karo Platinum project.

Karo Platinum expects to submit an EIA this month and, thereafter, start a diamond core drilling programme to verify the resource of about 96-million ounces 4E and advance the project to the feasibility stage, whereby Tharisa can decide on the viability of investing in development and processing capacity.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Karo Mining Holdings, email info@karomining.com.