UPDATE 1-Zimbabwe mining industry backs platinum refinery -official

(Adds Zimplats earnings)

CAPE TOWN, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's mining industry is in favour of a government proposal to build a new platinum refinery by 2016, a senior mining official said on Monday.

"We are at one with the government on this issue... it is the how and the means that differ," Alex Mhembere, president of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines, said on the sidelines of an African mining conference in Cape Town.

Mhembere, also the chief executive of Impala Platinum unit Zimplats ZIM.AX , said the industry was nearing the 500,000 ounces of annual output needed to make such a refinery viable.

Separately, Zimplats reported a 48 percent drop in operating profit for the three months to end-December, dragged down by weaker sales and global metal prices.

Revenue was down 13 percent during the same period.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe in HARARE; editing by David Dolan)

((wendell.roelf@thomsonreuters.com)(+27 82 893 6088))

Keywords: ZIMBABWE REFINERY/