I was thrilled to have been contracted this year to photograph one of Zimbabwe’s largest mining groups, Zimplats for their 2018 Annual Report. The assignment entailed 3 full days of photography at their main Ngezi mining operation, in their surrounding community and at their ore smelter. The scope of the Zimplats operation is massive and despite running around like a headless chicken for the duration of the assignment I felt that I only really scratched the surface in terms of the potential images on offer.
One of the requirements in the brief was to capture new, alluring images of their mining infrastructure, so I was up and about capturing images in the soft early morning light as well as the wonderfully complimentary evening blue light. I was also asked to capture as many intriguing pictures of the Zimplats employees at work, with an emphasis on capturing as many different woman in their varied roles at the mine. Check out some of the resulting images below, and be sure to see their annual report here.
After shooting the mining operations I turned my lens to the Selous Metallurgical Complex (SMC) where the mined ore is smelted down for transport to and further refining in South Africa. Again the emphasis was to be on the scope of the infrastructure as well as people at work in their various roles at the SMC.
The shear size of the infrastructure at Zimplats is nothing less than overwhelming, and there is no better way to show this this then with a drone, I flew my aerial buddy a lot during my shoot and managed to capture some wonderful images that give the perspective of size and scope well.
Zimplats is no stranger to their local, regional and countrywide community and they have consistently implemented and supported projects aimed at uplifting both the infrastructure and people within those communities. No corporate shoot would be complete without a focus on these community development efforts.
Overall I had a manic but enjoyable time shooting for Zimplats, and I am sure you can agree that I managed to capture the essence of their operations, people and community efforts well. I am very happy with the results and thoroughly enjoyed my time working with the team at Zimplats! I would like to extend my thanks to the Zimplats team for all their hard work involved in making this shoot a success.