The History of Zimplats

Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Limited (Zimplats) was established by Delta Gold Limited (Delta) in 1998 to take over all the platinum interests of Delta, thereby facilitating the independent development of Delta's gold assets and Zimplats' platinum assets. To initiate the divergence of the two companies' operations, Delta distributed 49% of Zimplats' equity to its shareholders by way of a dividend in specie.

In June 1998 BHP decided to suspend operations at the Hartley Platinum Mine because it could not obtain the required quantities of ore from the mine and was not achieving the anticipated grades.

In May 1999, Zimplats entered into an agreement to purchase BHP's 67% interest in the Hartley Platinum Joint Venture and its 61.3% interest in the Mhondoro Platinum Joint Venture. Zimplats' total direct investment in platinum development in Zimbabwe amounts to in excess of US$70 million, whilst BHP invested in excess of US$620 million on behalf of Zimplats and itself in the Hartley Platinum Mine.

Whilst BHP was developing the Hartley Platinum Mine, Zimplats completed feasibility studies for standalone underground and opencast mines at Ngezi. Both studies proved to be commercially viable. The acquisition of the Hartley Platinum Mine from BHP relieved Zimplats of the need to build a Concentrator and Smelter at Ngezi. Instead, it used the processing facilities at the Hartley Platinum Mine thereby reducing the cost and start up time for the Ngezi/SMC Project from 36 months to 8 months. The combination of the opencast mine at Ngezi, the processing plant at the Hartley Platinum Mine and the 77 kilometre highway connecting the two are collectively known as the Ngezi/SMC Project.

2.2 million tonnes of ore per annum are to be mined at the Ngezi Platinum Mine by opencast mining and hauled 77km to the Selous Metallurgical Complex (SMC) which is the surface processing facility of the Hartley Platinum Mine.

The Zimbabwe Government released BHP from its obligations on the Hartley Platinum Mine in December 2000. In January 2001 Zimplats acquired the BHP Zimbabwe platinum assets for a nominal amount.

In May 2001 the decision to proceed with the Ngezi/SMC Project was made and the first concentrate produced in November 2001, followed by smelter matte in January 2002. The first converter matte was exported in April 2002.