By Own Correspondent

Zimbabwe’s platinum miners are owed millions of dollars in unpaid export income under the government’s foreign currency retention rules, the mining chamber has said, hurting operations in a sector battling to recover from a price collapse.

The development will likely affect the sector’s workers if the withheld funds are not released timeously.

The southern African country requires all exporters to retain only 70% of their proceeds in foreign currency, with the balance being converted to local currency.

The world’s third largest producer of platinum group metals after neighbour South Africa and Russia, says it needs the foreign currency to fund vital imports and repay foreign loans.

Platinum producers in Zimbabwe, who include Valterra Platinum, Impala Platinum’s Zimplats, and Mimosa, a joint venture between Impala and Sibanye Stillwater, exported PGM mattes and concentrates worth $690 million in the first half of this year, government data shows.

However, the government has not been paying the miners the local currency equivalent of their export earnings since January, an official at the mining chamber told Reuters news agency.

Deputy finance minister Kudakwashe Mnangagwa confirmed that the government had fallen behind on paying the miners.

Platinum group metals, used to make catalytic converters that curb vehicle emissions, are Zimbabwe’s second most valuable mineral export, behind gold.

Zimbabwe exported gold worth $1.8 billion during the first half of 2025, up from $870 million during the same period last year, thanks to record high bullion prices.

Gold producers have also complained about Zimbabwe’s foreign currency retention rule, which they say eats into their income when part of their export proceeds are converted into an overvalued local currency.