Vedanta's Gamsberg zinc expansion reaches 75% completion

Vedanta Zinc International's Phase II expansion of the Gamsberg zinc mine in South Africa's Northern Cape was about 75% complete in the first quarter of the company's 2026 financial year, progressing toward a doubling of the mine's processing capacity from four-million to more than eight-million tonnes of ore a year.

What the expansion adds

The project includes a new four-million-tonne-a-year concentrator and is designed to lift metal-in-concentrate output from 300,000 tonnes a year to 500,000 tonnes a year, a scale that would make Gamsberg one of the largest zinc-producing complexes on the continent. Vedanta has said the expansion would create 1,500 to 2,000 jobs during construction and 800 to 1,000 permanent jobs once operating.

Shared ownership, shared upside

Gamsberg is owned by Vedanta Group (69.6%), Exxaro Resources (24.4%) and an employee share ownership scheme (6%), spreading the benefits of the expansion across South African industrial and worker interests rather than a single foreign investor. First production from the Phase II expansion is expected in Vedanta's 2031 financial year, reflecting the multi-year construction timeline typical of large concentrator projects.

Building on a broader push in the Northern Cape

The Gamsberg expansion sits within a wider push by Vedanta Zinc International to grow its footprint in the Northern Cape, including a February 2026 strategic mining partnership to secure future ore supply at its Swartberg deposit and closer collaboration with the provincial government on the planned Namakwa Special Economic Zone. Together, these moves aim to position Vedanta's Northern Cape operations as an integrated zinc hub rather than a series of standalone mines.

Why it matters

Zinc demand remains closely tied to galvanised steel used in construction and infrastructure, and a doubling of South African zinc capacity would meaningfully increase the country's exposure to that market. For the Northern Cape, historically reliant on a shrinking base of older mines, Gamsberg's expansion represents one of the province's largest current mining investments and a rare source of new industrial jobs.

Completion of Phase II would rank among the largest single mining capital projects under way in South Africa, at a time when many other base-metal operations in the country are managing decline rather than expansion.

Sources

• Mining Weekly: Gamsberg Phase 2 expansion project, South Africa – update, 01 Aug 2025

Photo: Zinc-bearing sphalerite ore from the Northern Cape's Orange River area, near Vedanta's Gamsberg mine. Ra'ike (see also: de:Benutzer:Ra'ike), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.