Tharisa’s Karo Platinum project in Zimbabwe has secured a five-year agreement with Valterra Platinum to buy platinum group metals (PGMs) and other metals produced at the mine as the project moves closer to production.The agreement, announced on Thursday, has an initial five-year term, with financial details not disclosed.The deal comes three days after Karo signed a 25-year special mining lease agreement with the Zimbabwean government, securing its rights to develop the project and the fiscal terms that will apply to the mine. The lease agreement followed several years of development work on Karo, with construction beginning in 2022 and pilot mining starting in 2023. Tharisa has invested more than $240m in the project to date.Karo’s development has taken longer than initially expected, with the project having been affected by weaker PGM prices and the need to finalise its fiscal arrangements, according to Tharisa. First production is now expected in 2027.The first phase of Karo is designed to produce about 226,000oz of PGMs a year once it reaches full production. The project is located on Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke, one of the country’s major mineral belts.Valterra operates the Unki platinum mine in Zimbabwe, about 200km from Karo, and has processing facilities that handle PGM-bearing material. Valterra said the agreement would add Karo’s production to its portfolio of material sourced from other mining companies.“The agreement reflects our confidence in the fundamentals of the PGM market and Tharisa’s ability to develop this project on the high-quality mineralised zone of Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke,” said Valterra CEO Craig Miller. Karo Platinum is 85% owned by Karo Mining Holdings, with the Zimbabwean government holding the remaining 15% through Generation Minerals. Tharisa owns 78.81% of Karo Mining Holdings.Karo has an open-pit mineral reserve of 2.1-million ounces of PGM, calculated using platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold. Tharisa says the project could support a mine life of more than 50 years if potential underground mining is included.Tharisa CEO Phoevos Pouroulis said the agreement with Valterra provided offtake certainty as Karo advances towards first production.Business Day