President Cyril Ramaphosa today opened the R10 billion Gamsberg Phase II expansion of Vedanta Zinc International (VZI), the Southern African zinc business of Vedanta Limited. The expansion roughly doubles the zinc mine’s output and is one of the largest mining investments in South Africa in the past decade. In total, Vedanta has invested R89 billion in its South African operations and projects since 2011.
Completed in July 2026, Phase II adds a second concentrator and increases Gamsberg’s annual zinc production capacity to approximately 500 000 tonnes, positioning it to become one of the world’s largest zinc-producing operations. More than 1 500 people worked on the project at the peak of construction, and Phase II is set to create approximately 800 to 1 000 jobs during operations. Zinc is mainly used to galvanise steel, the world’s most widely used metal, and protect it from corrosion.
The President was joined by the Minister of Electricity and Energy; Mr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa; Premier of the Northern Cape; Dr Zamani Saul; Vedanta Non-Executive Director and Chairperson of Hindustan Zinc, Ms Priya Agarwal-Hebbar; Mr Akarsh Hebbar, Vice Chairman, Vedanta Aluminium Metal Ltd and President, Vedanta Limited; and VZI Chief Executive Officer, Mr Vijay Kumar.
The expansion forms part of the R21 billion investment commitment Vedanta made at the 2018 South Africa Investment Conference. At last month’s 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, President Ramaphosa called for increased Indian investment in key South African industries. Vedanta’s continued investment in the Northern Cape demonstrates the tangible value of this growing economic partnership.
“We have come to celebrate an investment that has moved from commitment to construction, and from construction to production,” said President Ramaphosa.
Agarwal-Hebbar said that for Vedanta, Gamsberg Phase II was more than an expansion of its zinc business. “It is a commitment to South Africa’s future. My father (Vedanta founder and chairman Anil Agarwal) made that commitment with the belief that the country’s mineral wealth could become a foundation for industrial growth, jobs and opportunity. Today, I am proud to see the vision coming to life. Our ambition is to build a globally significant zinc and industrial hub in the region, creating lasting value for the country and its people. Because the true measure of our success is not just what we produce, but the prosperity we help create for generations to come,” she said.
“We invested through a demanding period for the industry because we believe in this region’s potential. We want the benefits to stay in Namakwa, through local jobs, local suppliers and skills development,” said Kumar.
Beyond the employment created at its operations, Vedanta has invested more than R300 million in community initiatives in South Africa since acquiring VZI in 2011. Focused on health, education, care centres, sport, livelihoods, infrastructure and social welfare, these initiatives benefit more than 32 000 people each year across Khâi-Ma, Nama Khoi and the broader Namakwa District. Through its Social and Labour Plan, VZI also partners with the Namakwa District and Khâi-Ma municipalities on priority community projects, including the oncology centre opened in Namakwa earlier this year.
Phase II also underpins VZI’s plans to refine zinc in South Africa. VZI is the anchor investor of the Namakwa Special Economic Zone, designated in May 2024, where it plans a zinc smelter that would refine concentrate into zinc metal close to the mine and support secondary industries such as fertiliser and chemicals. The expansion takes VZI closer to its ambition of producing one million tonnes of zinc a year from its Southern African operations.
“We welcome Vedanta’s ambition to establish zinc smelting capacity in the Northern Cape. We recognise that an investment of this magnitude requires commercially viable electricity, reliable infrastructure and other enabling conditions. Government must work with Vedanta and other partners to address these requirements. We want the zinc that is mined here to become the foundation of industries that manufacture here, employ here and create prosperity here,” said President Ramaphosa.