Zimbabwe Mining 2025: Gold Boom Offsets Sharp Drops in Key Minerals

Zimbabwe’s 2025 mining sector reports a 44% gold surge offsetting sharp declines in lithium and platinum (image source)

Zimbabwe’s mining sector delivered a mixed 2025 performance, driven by a remarkable surge in gold while several strategic minerals contracted sharply, forcing a downward revision to the industry’s growth outlook and renewing calls for value addition and energy security. Gold production rose an estimated 44 percent this year, reinforcing gold’s role as the backbone of Zimbabwe’s mineral exports and lifting export receipts despite declines elsewhere in the sector. Coal output recorded modest growth of about 4 percent, supported by fresh investments and stronger regional energy demand, offering some offset to broader weaknesses.

In contrast, platinum group metals and battery metals recorded notable setbacks: platinum fell by around 7 percent, palladium 8 percent, rhodium 2 percent, lithium plunged 45 percent and nickel declined 17 percent, creating an uneven production profile that undermined overall sector momentum. Those declines prompted authorities to revise the mining growth forecast downward from an earlier 5.6 percent to roughly 2.9 percent for 2025, reflecting both operational constraints and global price dynamics.

Export earnings told a different story, rising strongly on the back of gold and diamond sales. Mineral export proceeds jumped about 28 percent to approximately US$3.2 billion, evidence that higher-value outputs can still drive forex inflows even when volumes in some commodities fall short. John Musekiwa, president of the Chamber of Mines, told delegates at last week’s MineEntra Expo in Bulawayo that the sector’s future hinges on beneficiation, local content and technology adoption, and highlighted ongoing industry moves to establish refining capacity and promote downstream processing across gold, lithium, PGMs, ferrochrome and coal. Musekiwa praised the Smart Mining Programme’s automation and digital-tracking initiatives as central to improving transparency and reducing leakages, and said many firms are investing in renewable power to mitigate grid shortages.

Industry analysts and consultants warn that sustaining growth will require policy consistency, reliable energy, and incentives for capital-intensive value-add projects that keep more mineral value within Zimbabwe’s economy. The Chamber estimates mining contributes about 14.5 percent of GDP and accounts for roughly 76 percent of export earnings, underscoring the sector’s outsized role in national development and the urgency of structural reforms to capture more downstream value.

Stakeholders at MineEntra advocated a coordinated agenda: accelerate beneficiation infrastructure, fast-track predictable licensing and fiscal terms, and scale public-private partnerships for off-grid energy and port logistics to support increased refined exports. If implemented, these measures could transform the current production-led recovery into a broader industrialisation pathway that spreads benefits more widely across Zimbabwe’s economy.