Mining & Minerals

Zimbabwe ferrochrome smelters face a 2026 captive power deadline with the year half gone

25th August, 2026

Harare ended subsidised grid tariffs for the sector and required smelters to build their own generation, primarily renewable. Smelting draws 3,500 to 4,000 kilowatt hours a tonne. The requirement arrives alongside a raw mineral export ban that asks the same companies to process more, not less.

Zimbabwe’s ferrochrome smelters were given until this year to develop their own captive power generation, primarily from renewable sources, ending a period of subsidised grid electricity tariffs for the sector. The deadline was set out by the International Chromium Development Association earlier this year, and 2026 is now more than half over.

The requirement is physical. Ferrochrome smelting consumes between 3,500 and 4,000 kilowatt hours for every tonne of output, a load a generation-deficient grid cannot absorb at scale without taking supply from other users. Removing the subsidy does not create capacity. Requiring the smelters to build it does.

Two policies now pull on the same companies from opposite directions. Harare suspended exports of all raw minerals with immediate effect on 25 February, and has announced regional beneficiation hubs earmarking chrome-producing areas for dedicated ferrochrome and chromium alloy production. Processing more chrome domestically raises the sector’s electricity demand at the same moment the sector has been told to generate its own.

Zimplats is furthest along the captive route. The company is investing around US$201 million in 185MW of solar across four phases. The first, at the Selous Metallurgical Complex, is fully commissioned at 35MW and generated more than 66GWh during the 2025 financial year, with construction under way on the second phase. Zimplats is a subsidiary of Impala Platinum and has been augmenting its own solar with imports from Zambia.

Sable Chemicals, the country’s sole producer of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, has a 5MW plant inside a wider 50MW programme, which it expects to cut electricity costs by at least a fifth. New Sahara Ventures has completed a 6MW plant serving Mahuhwe and Muzarabani alongside an existing 5.5MW facility at Guruve. The 50MW Mapanzure Solar project under China-Zim CPP reached 70 per cent completion and was expected to commission in June.

Against those, Zimbabwe’s public-private power programme is still around 730MW short of its 2026 target.