- The country's chromite ore has a chromium-to-iron ratio of 2.5:1, making it ideal for ferrochrome production. The Great Dyke, a 550km geological formation, hosts the world's largest high-grade chromite resource base.
- Approximately 90% of global ferrochrome production is consumed by the stainless steel industry, with demand growing in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
- Zimbabwe has banned raw chrome ore exports and is promoting investment in smelting capacity, with companies like Tsingshan Steel investing in stainless steel production facilities
Harare- Every conversation about Zimbabwe's mineral future is dominated by gold, platinum group metals, lithium, and diamonds. Each of these has a legitimate claim on policy attention and investor interest, and each has a body of analysis dedicated to its prospects, its challenges, and its contribution to the national economy.
Chrome receives a fraction of that analytical attention, and that is a misallocation of focus that this article sets out to correct. Chrome is the mineral where Zimbabwe holds the strongest structural position relative to its current contribution, where its dominant global competitor is facing a severe cost challenge, where global demand is tied to stainless steel and where the economics of value addition are already visible through an operating ferrochrome industry and the emerging Manhize steel chain.
Zimbabwe's opportunity does not begin with another geological discovery. The Great Dyke has been known for decades, mining and smelting operations are already established, and the country has developed a significant ferrochrome export business. The issue is the distance between the resource underground and the industrial value captured inside the country. That distance runs through electricity, processing capacity, investment, logistics and steel production.
The Great Dyke stretches about 550 kilometres through Zimbabwe and contains one of the world's major chromite resource bases. Zimbabwe's chromite is also characterised by a chromium to iron ratio of about 2.5 to 1, supporting its position in the ferrochrome market. USGS data available by March 2026 put Zimbabwe's chromite ore reserves at about 140 million tonnes, behind South Africa and Kazakhstan, while the country's broader geological resource base is substantially larger.
The gap between the resource and its economic contribution becomes clearer in the export data. Zimbabwe exported 328,442 tonnes of high carbon ferrochrome worth US$272.8 million during the first nine months of 2025, compared with 271,150 tonnes worth US$251.6 million in the same period of 2024. Export volume increased 21%, while value increased only 8%. Zimbabwe was therefore processing and selling significantly more material without achieving an equivalent increase in export earnings.
That divergence places the economics of the industry at the centre of the opportunity. The question is no longer whether Zimbabwe can produce ferrochrome. It can. The question is how much value can be retained from every additional tonne once electricity, furnace utilisation, transport, capital and international pricing are taken into account.
A RioZim official interviewed by Equity Axis on condition of anonymity said chrome is among the businesses the group intends to develop over the long term. The official said electricity costs can sometimes account for more than 20% of revenue and that chrome processing is particularly electricity intensive because expanding production requires substantially more power.
The official said the proposed Sengwa power project was therefore important to RioZim's longer term plans because additional chrome processing would require a reliable source of electricity. RioZim had envisaged a major power development at Sengwa, with the project built around a substantial coal resource and plans for large scale generation. For an electricity intensive industry, the availability and cost of power can determine whether a resource moves from geological potential to commercially viable production.
Ferrochrome smelting requires roughly 2.0 to 2.5 megawatt hours of electricity for every tonne of alloy. At a midpoint of 2.25 MWh per tonne, every US$10 movement in the electricity cost changes direct power expenditure by approximately US$22.50 per tonne before other charges. At hundreds of thousands of tonnes of annual production, relatively small movements in electricity costs can therefore materially alter the economics of a furnace.
Electricity, however, is only one part of the problem. Zimbabwe's chrome opportunity is also constrained by the ability to expand processing capacity, finance new furnaces, maintain transport infrastructure and connect ferrochrome production to higher value industrial activity. The significance of power emerges because it sits across all of these decisions. A new furnace has little value if it cannot operate consistently, while a processing plant operating on expensive backup generation can consume the margin created by high quality ore.
South Africa provides the clearest regional demonstration. The country has a far larger chromite reserve base and a mature ferrochrome industry, yet electricity economics have forced major producers to suspend furnaces. Merafe Resources reported attributable ferrochrome production of 112,000 tonnes in 2025, down from 301,000 tonnes in 2024. Electricity costs were among the factors behind the suspension of capacity, even as South Africa's electricity availability improved during 2025.
By February 2026, South Africa was already working on a targeted electricity response for the ferrochrome industry. Eskom had supported a framework towards a 62 cents per kilowatt hour tariff for the Glencore Merafe chrome operation after an interim tariff of 87.74 cents per kilowatt hour. The intervention demonstrated the degree to which electricity pricing had become central to the survival and competitiveness of ferrochrome production.
For Zimbabwe, this creates a competitive opening that has to be converted into a durable advantage. South Africa's difficulties do not automatically transfer market share to Zimbabwe. South African producers have substantial reserves, infrastructure, technical expertise and access to policy intervention. Once electricity economics improve, some of the lost capacity can return. Zimbabwe therefore needs its own cost structure to remain competitive after regional capacity recovers.
China presents an even larger competitive test. Chinese ferrochrome production was estimated at about 9.5 million tonnes in 2025, representing roughly 60% of global supply. China is simultaneously the world's largest stainless steel producer and one of the major destinations for chrome raw materials. Zimbabwe therefore faces an unusual market structure in which its largest potential customer is also home to the world's largest ferrochrome industry.
That makes Zimbabwe's ore quality important, but insufficient on its own. The commercial advantage created by the Great Dyke has to survive the full cost of mining, transport, electricity, reductants, labour and capital before the ferrochrome reaches the customer. The country's opportunity is strongest where ore quality and processing economics combine to produce a competitive tonne of ferrochrome.
Government's beneficiation policy has attempted to force that transition. Zimbabwe restricted exports of raw chrome and promoted domestic smelting to retain more mineral value within the country. In February 2026, government moved to tighten restrictions on exports of raw minerals, including chrome, amid concerns about mineral leakages and export malpractices.
The policy creates a clear industrial objective, but the economics determine whether it succeeds. Preventing raw chrome from leaving Zimbabwe retains the resource for domestic processors. Domestic processing then has to be sufficiently competitive to create more value than the cost imposed by the additional stage. That requires reliable electricity, adequate furnace capacity, competitive logistics and sufficient investment.
The strongest development in this respect is the connection between chrome and steel. Afrochine's ferrochrome operations are linked to Tsingshan's wider stainless steel supply chain, while Dinson Iron and Steel's Manhize project has established domestic steelmaking capacity. The emergence of that chain creates a pathway from chromite to ferrochrome and then into steel, allowing Zimbabwe to retain additional value before the product reaches the international market.
This is where chrome becomes an industrialisation story. Mining creates the first layer of economic activity. Smelting adds electricity consumption, technical employment, equipment and industrial services. Steel production adds another layer of processing and creates demand for transport, engineering, fabrication and other downstream activities. The more of those inputs Zimbabwe can supply domestically, the greater the economic activity generated around every tonne of chromite.
The commercial test is already visible in the export numbers. The 21% increase in ferrochrome export volume during the first nine months of 2025 produced only an 8% increase in export value. That gap requires greater attention to realised prices, production efficiency and the cost of processing. Increasing tonnage without improving the value generated from each tonne can enlarge the physical industry while leaving its economic contribution below its potential.
The same principle applies to investment. RioZim's search for an investor demonstrates that chrome development requires substantial capital before the resource can become a larger processing business. The company's experience also places electricity at the centre of the investment case. When power can consume more than 20% of revenue, the financing decision cannot be separated from the generation strategy supporting the project.
The emergence of Manhize creates another route for value retention. If more ferrochrome can feed into a domestic steel industry, Zimbabwe can capture value beyond the first processing stage. That requires sufficient steel capacity, competitive production costs and an industrial ecosystem capable of supplying the plant. Chrome therefore becomes increasingly valuable as part of an integrated chain rather than as an isolated mining operation.
Zimbabwe's opportunity also has an important carbon dimension. Ferrochrome is an electricity intensive product, and international industrial markets are increasingly incorporating embedded emissions into procurement and trade decisions. A competitive Zimbabwean chrome industry will therefore need power that is both affordable and increasingly capable of supporting a lower carbon production profile.
The mineral's importance should consequently be measured through more than tonnes mined. Ferrochrome exports, realised value per tonne, electricity cost per tonne, furnace utilisation, domestic steel production, local procurement, employment and tax receipts together provide a much clearer picture of the industry's contribution.
Zimbabwe already has the foundations. The Great Dyke provides the resource, established producers provide processing experience, ferrochrome exports provide an existing revenue stream and Manhize provides an emerging industrial destination. The missing component is the ability to make those assets operate together at a cost that can compete internationally.
That is why chrome deserves greater attention in Zimbabwe's mining debate. Its opportunity is not based on the size of the resource alone. It sits in the combination of ore quality, established processing, a large stainless steel market, an emerging domestic steel industry and the possibility of retaining several stages of value inside the country.
The decisive test will be the value created from each additional tonne of chromite. Competitive electricity can protect the economics of smelting. Higher furnace utilisation can spread fixed costs. Stronger steel production can retain another layer of value. Domestic suppliers can capture activity around the chain. Together, those outcomes can turn a mining resource into a broader industrial base.
Zimbabwe does not need to become the world's largest chrome producer for the mineral to become economically important. It needs to make the tonnes it already produces generate more value inside the country, while building enough power and processing capacity to support expansion. The Great Dyke has supplied the resource for decades. The opportunity now lies in making the industrial chain around it work at a scale and cost that allows Zimbabwe to capture the value it has historically left downstream.
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