The US$3 billion Great Dyke Investments (GDI) platinum mega project has all but collapsed.
Touted as a game changer and an indicator of progress in attracting investors, the project collapsed in 2021 due to a plethora of problems which include corruption, mismanagement, mistrust, and poor planning. Mining operations have since stopped as the Russian investor has stopped pumping money into the project.
The government of Zimbabwe commissioned the Darwendale platinum project in September 2014. Located on the mineral-rich Great Dyke of Zimbabwe, it the belt is one of the biggest Platinum Group Metals (PGM) deposits in the world. The project was being developed by a company called Great Dyke Investments, a joint venture between Russia’s Vi Holding and Zimbabwe’s Landela Mining Venture. A bankable feasibility study which was undertaken in 2017 by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) showed that the project had a potential to contribute to the turnaround of Zimbabwe’s economy. The peak production of the mine was expected to be 860,000 ounces of platinum group metals a year, translating to almost US$1 billion.