Valterra Platinum said it was making progress extracting current export proceeds from Zimbabwe, but an agreement on getting a historic amount of $100m paid was unresolved.
Zimbabwe owed Valterra Platinum US$123 million last year of which US$9 million had been paid, leaving a balance of US$114 million. Sayurie Naidoo, CFO of the platinum miner, said while another $10m of current proceeds was to be paid, there was “no sustainable solution” for the amount relating to previous years.
“On our current proceeds, we’re getting close to the full amount, either through tax offsets or through the Reserve Bank giving us at least 15% of that. However, there’s still more engagement needed to resolve those historic balances,” she said.
Zimbabwe holds money from platinum operations in terms of its foreign currency retention system in which miners are required to convert 30% of their dollar earnings into local currency. The logjam is when the local currency isn’t paid over. Platinum miners are owed $228m in unpaid export income, including Impala Platinum (Implats), which said recently it was owed $78m by Zimbabwe.
Valterra operates the Unki mine in Zimbabwe, which produced 219,700 ounces of PGM concentrates in 2025, representing about 7% of the group’s total concentrate output. Implats has even bigger exposure: it derives about 500,000 ounces per year in PGMs from its 87% stake in Zimplats. It also mines at Zimbabwe’s Mimosa mine.
Naidoo said there had been “talk of some kind of facility being put in place with the African [Export-Import] Bank,” but did not give details. “We’re still waiting for that to be finalised,” she said.
Implats CEO Nico Muller said in February last year he was due to meet finance minister Mthuli Ncube to discuss the matter. “We are concerned about the need for increased access to forex by the Zimbabwean government. It is something that needs to be discussed … It is not something I want to scrub under the carpet,” he said.
“We’ve been engaging with the Reserve Bank and with the Ministry of Finance – though we’ve yet to get a meeting with the Ministry of Finance itself,” said Naidoo. Valterra has met with the mines ministry, however. “We’ve also been engaging with the South African government to try to intervene and support us. It’s also an industry-wide issue, so we’re trying to collaborate with our peers to resolve this in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Reuters cited Platinum Producers’ Association chairman Alex Mhembere as saying in June that the payment delays were compounding problems for firms that have also been battling high costs and erratic electricity supply. The industry was pleading with the government for faster payments, Mhembere said. “These engagements have not resulted in significant change to the situation,” he added.
Unki held $37 million in ZiG at 30 June 2026, up from $1.6 million a year earlier. Unki remained one of Valterra Platinum’s strongest operations, recording the highest EBITDA margin in the group at 54%, compared with the portfolio average of 50%. Although production fell 4% year-on-year, revenue jumped 81% as dollar PGM prices rose 75%.
(MiningMX/newZWire)
