Impala Platinum (Implats) is to plough $700,000 million into Makwiro Platinum, a new mining venture in Zimbabwe.

Makwiro, which will become Zimbabwe's biggest mining project, is 83 per cent owned by South African producer Implats, SABC reports.

Zimbabwe has the third largest platinum reserves in the world after South Africa and Russia with 2.4 million tones of platinum lying in the Great Dyke mineral belt alone.

"Phase one will be an underground mine on these areas that we are currently standing on," Keith Rumble, Implats chief executive, stated.

"That's an investment of around $110 million and phase two and phase five will, however, commence immediately. That will be an investment of around $700 - $800 million and that will span a period of five to 10 years."

Implats is the world's second largest producer of platinum, with its primary mining and processing operations concentrated on the Impala lease area on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa's North West Province.