By: African mining market

Zimbabwe’s mines said this week expansion projects, along with projected bullish international mineral prices, will help the industry achieve 7% growth this year, defying a tougher tax regime and punitive lending rates.

This growth would be ahead of 5% in 2024, and 4% the previous year.

“In the outlook for 2025, the mining sector’s output is projected to grow by a weighted average of approximately 7%, while mineral revenue is expected to increase by around 10% to approximately US$6 billion, up from around US$5,5 billion in 2024,” Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) chief executive officer Isaac Kwesu told the Zimbabwe Independent.

“This growth will be driven primarily by ongoing expansion activities and an anticipated recovery in commodity prices in 2025. Gold production is expected to increase by 9% to around 41 tonnes, whilst platinum is expected to increase by 4% and diamonds by 10%,” Kwesu said.

The government has aggressively pursued the last remaining formal companies, including mines, with higher taxes and broadened the base from which they are collected.

The strategy is to make up for leakages occasioned by a switch to the informal sector, with companies avoiding high costs of doing business confronting formally-registered corporations.

The government sees in mines, which mostly earn exclusively in foreign currency, the base from which to deal with its revenue crisis.

The CoMZ CEO said while these factors have been drawbacks, miners were negotiating with government.