• RioZim's gold production fell 80% to 84kg in 2025, with output coming entirely from Renco Mine following its restart under a contract mining and funding arrangement with FeiFan Mining
• The dismissal of the corporate rescue application, completion of Cam & Motor dewatering and the restart of Renco operations have removed several of the operational constraints that dominated 2025
• A gold price environment approaching US$5,000 per ounce substantially improves the economics of any production recovery, placing execution at Renco and the planned restart of Cam & Motor at the centre of RioZim's 2026 outlook

Harare- RioZim Limited's Renco mine is back in production, while Cam and Motor mine has completed its dewatering and is targeting a production restart in the second half of 2026, and a corporate rescue application that paralysed the company's strategic decision-making for the better part of a year has been dismissed with finality by the Supreme Court. Those three developments, none of which existed simultaneously at any point during the 2025 financial year, define the operating environment in which RioZim's recovery will be tested and are more consequential than the headline production figure of 84 kilograms that the group recorded for the year ended 31 December 2025.

Gold production fell 80% from 428 kilograms in 2024 to 84 kilograms in 2025, with output coming entirely from Renco mine following its restart in September 2025 under a contract mining and funding arrangement with FeiFan Mining Private Limited. Cam and Motor mine recorded zero production throughout the reporting period.

The company recorded a net loss of ZWG 739.1 million for the year, widening from ZWG 628.5 million in the prior period, on revenue of ZWG 251.3 million against cost of sales of ZWG 312.5 million, producing a gross loss of ZWG 61.1 million.

No dividend was declared, and chairperson Caleb Dengu in a statement accompanying the FY2025 results said the year was a pivotal and transformative period for the company, laying the foundation for recovery and long-term sustainability.

The 84 kilograms of gold produced in 2025 came from approximately four months of operations at a single mine ramping from a standing start under a new funding and contract mining arrangement.

Renco mine's production restart was made possible by a loan funding and contract mining arrangement concluded with FeiFan Mining Private Limited. FeiFan advanced a total nominal loan of ZWG 389,710,000 to the group, structured as an interest-free facility with no fixed maturity date, with recovery of the loan linked directly to cash flows generated from Renco mine operations. The loan was secured on the assets of Renco mine.

Simultaneously, FeiFan was appointed as mining contractor responsible for mining and extraction services, including the resuscitation and stabilisation of Renco operations.

The interest-free structure carried two specific analytical advantages that the results statement does not make explicit. It aligned FeiFan's capital recovery directly with Renco's operational performance, creating an incentive structure in which the contractor bears a meaningful portion of the production ramp-up risk rather than collecting fixed payments regardless of output. It also eliminated the interest expense burden that would otherwise compound against a company still recording net losses, preserving cash generated from production for operational reinvestment rather than diverting it to financing charges. Total interest expense on all interest-bearing borrowings for the year was ZWG 5,213,000, a figure that confirms the FeiFan facility's cost structure is not adding materially to the group's cash obligations during the recovery period.

The employee complement at Renco mine increased by 45% from the resumption of operations in September 2025 to year-end. Headcount at the level required for underground mining does not expand without the physical underground development, ore availability, and processing plant readiness to support it. The 45% workforce increase in four months was an operationally credible signal of genuine production ramp-up rather than cosmetic restart activity.

Extensive underground development is planned to open new mining areas and enhance grade flexibility in 2026, and the group is upgrading backup power systems following rain-induced power disruptions that affected operations in Q4 2025.

On the other hand, Cam and Motor mine contributed nothing to 2025 revenue. Dewatering of flooded pits commenced in November 2025 following mobilisation of pumping infrastructure and was completed in the latter part of Q1 2026. The group confirmed that following completion of the dewatering, priority has shifted to refurbishment of the processing plant to enable production restart, with pit development and relocation of properties within blasting zones identified as the remaining critical milestones.

Cam and Motor is positioned to commence gold production in the second half of 2026.

The analytical significance of that guidance is straightforward. Cam and Motor represents a production contribution entirely absent from the 2025 comparatives. Any gold produced at Cam and Motor in H2 2026 registers in a year-on-year comparison against zero, making the 2026 annual production figure a direct beneficiary of a reactivation effect that the 2025 numbers cannot reflect. The exploration, evaluation, and development assets carrying value of ZWG 344,192,000 at December 2025 represents years of investment in an ore body whose productive capacity has been temporarily suspended rather than permanently impaired.

No impairment was recognised in the current year against development assets, consistent with the directors' assessment that Cam and Motor's recoverable value supports its carrying amount at the December 2025 reporting date.

Meanwhile, RZM Murowa Private Limited, RioZim's associate diamond operation, continued to operate under challenging market conditions due to depressed international diamond prices. Production declined 58% to 149,000 carats from 359,000 carats in the comparative period as operations were scaled back to minimise losses. The group recognised a share of loss from the associate of ZWG 303.4 million, compared to ZWG 66.0 million in the prior year. Murowa is currently reviewing its mine plan to align production with prevailing diamond prices.

The Murowa drag was the single largest year-on-year deterioration in the income statement below the operating line and reflected a market condition that RioZim cannot influence through operational decisions. International diamond prices have been under sustained pressure from the combination of laboratory-grown diamond supply growth and softening consumer demand in the United States and Chinese markets. Until diamond prices recover sufficiently for Murowa to resume production at a scale that generates positive equity earnings, the associate will continue to drag on the consolidated result regardless of how well Renco and Cam and Motor perform.

As part of its turnaround strategy, RioZim pursued value extraction from its chrome claims in Darwendale through operational collaboration arrangements with third-party contractors, resulting in the commencement of mining activities and what the chairman described as positive contributions to the group. The chrome operations are not separately quantified in the abridged results, but their characterisation as delivering positive contributions in 2025 establishes a revenue line absent from any prior year comparative that will grow in the 2026 results as the full-year effect of the Darwendale arrangements is captured.

Zimbabwe's Critical Minerals Declaration of 22 May 2026 classified chrome as a strategic mineral and mandated in-country beneficiation. RioZim's Darwendale claims, operated with minimal capital outlay through contractor arrangements, represent a real option on a growing revenue stream whose policy environment has improved materially within months of the results announcement.

The Balance Sheet and the Road Ahead

Total equity at December 2025 was negative ZWG 1,561,097,000, with accumulated losses of ZWG 1,666,849,000 reflecting years of losses accumulated through prolonged undercapitalisation and production suspension. Property, plant and equipment net book value of ZWG 1,283,680,000 represents the physical infrastructure of two operational mines and a metallurgical plant. Capital work in progress of ZWG 54,559,000 reflects ongoing underground development investment at Renco.

The non-current other payables of ZWG 2,931,195,000 relating to the BCL Limited liquidation liability outstanding since 2016 is classified under non-current liabilities given its decade-long litigation history and the directors' assessment that settlement within twelve months is not expected.

Three observable milestones will determine whether the rebuilding narrative the group has articulated is validated by the 2026 results. Cam and Motor must commence gold production in H2 2026 as guided, Renco's underground development programme must open sufficient new mining faces to sustain full-year output at a scale capable of generating positive operating cash flows at above USD 4,000 per ounce gold, and the Empress Nickel Refinery strategic partner discussions must progress to a conclusion, converting the care and maintenance cost from a cash drain into a revenue source whose strategic value in the current critical minerals environment is higher than at any previous point in the company's history.

RioZim produced 84 kilograms of gold in 2025. The company is not yet generating the revenue required to service all obligations and return to profitability at that production level, but Renco is ramping, Cam and Motor's dewatering is complete, the legal cloud has cleared, the FeiFan arrangement is funded, and gold is at USD 5,000 per ounce. RioZim is not yet recovered. It is not dead.

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