Vedanta Limited has invested nearly $600 million to expand its Gamsberg zinc mine in South Africa, lifting stated concentrate capacity as the government seeks more domestic processing of minerals.
In an Oct. 18 stock exchange filing, Vedanta said the second phase doubled annual zinc-in-concentrate capacity at its South African operations to about 500,000 tonnes. That is a capacity measure, not a figure for zinc already produced.
An earlier Vedanta case study projected 450,000 tonnes of annual metal-in-concentrate capacity at Gamsberg after the second phase. Vedanta’s Oct. 18 filing and Ramaphosa’s address both give about 500,000 tonnes of annual zinc-in-concentrate capacity; Ramaphosa refers specifically to Gamsberg. Neither source explains the earlier 450,000-tonne projection.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the new concentrator in Aggeneys on Oct. 16. He said the mine’s annual ore capacity would rise from about 4 million to 8 million tonnes. Gamsberg’s first phase opened in 2019, after Vedanta made an investment pledge at the 2018 South Africa Investment Conference.
Vedanta counts the latest phase toward that 21 billion rand pledge. It has set a target of producing 3 million tonnes of zinc a year across India and South Africa, including 2 million tonnes from Hindustan Zinc Limited and 1 million tonnes from Vedanta Zinc International. Those are company targets, not output reported from the expanded mine.
More than 1,500 people worked on construction, Ramaphosa said, and the expanded operation is expected to sustain 800 to 1,000 jobs. Vedanta cited construction and automotive manufacturing among the industries that use zinc.
Ramaphosa linked the expansion to South Africa’s effort to retain more value from the minerals it mines. He said the country has historically exported minerals for processing elsewhere and welcomed Vedanta’s ambition to build a zinc smelter in the Northern Cape. Commercially viable electricity and reliable infrastructure would be needed for that investment, he said.
