Zimbabwe’s mining sector already consumes roughly half the country’s domestic electricity generation, and the next few years point to that pressure intensifying rather than easing.
Chamber of Mines Zimbabwe CEO Isaac Kwesu says the sector currently consumes approximately 1,000MW of electricity, more than half of what is produced locally, with demand set to surge beyond 1,500MW within the next 12 months as expansion and new beneficiation facilities come online.
Zooming out further, mining sector electricity demand is projected to rise 40% between 2026 and 2030, pushing peak demand above 3,000MW as new lithium projects, the US$1.5 billion Dinson Iron and Steel plant at Manhize, and expanded smelting and refining capacity come into operation.
The constraint isn’t generation capacity on paper. Zimbabwe has installed electricity generation capacity of more than 3,000MW, but actual supply rarely exceeds 2,100MW because of ageing infrastructure and periodic breakdowns at thermal power stations.
The country still leans on regional imports to cover the shortfall, it continues to rely on imports for roughly 20% of its electricity needs, and spent US$881.7 million on imported power between January 2021 and March 2026.
For miners, that instability has a measurable cost: the industry loses approximately 10% of its potential output to power outages, according to the Chamber’s 2026 sector survey.
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Policy is now pushing the sector toward covering its own gap.
The government has required large-scale miners, particularly ferrochrome producers, to establish their own captive power plants by 2026, easing pressure on the national grid while supporting continued industrial expansion.
On the supply side, private power producers, mining companies, and independent developers now have more than 600MW of new generation capacity under construction, with several hundred more megawatts progressing toward financial close, putting the country on track for roughly 1,365MW of new capacity by December 2026, with ZESA targeting an end to power imports by December 2027.
Two examples underline the shift already underway. Padenga Holdings’ Eureka Gold Mine in Guruve commissioned the first phase, 5.4MW, of a 16.4MW solar plant supplying the site, as part of the group’s broader strategy to secure power for its gold assets.
At a larger scale, Zimplats has committed roughly US$201 million to develop 185MW of solar capacity across its Ngezi and Selous sites, a signal that even established, high-consumption operators are treating self-generation as core infrastructure rather than a stopgap.
Energy availability is increasingly a factor investors weigh alongside geology, infrastructure, and policy stability when assessing project bankability, beneficiation projects in particular are energy-intensive, meaning the pace of Zimbabwe’s value-addition ambitions depends as much on reliable power as on mineral availability.
How that gap closes, through grid investment, captive generation, or blended financing structures, is now a live question for anyone underwriting a Zimbabwean mining or processing asset.
Zimbabwe Mining Week’s programme opens with a dedicated day on power and infrastructure ahead of the main three days, bringing this exact question to the table.
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