Hwange Colliery Company Limited is prioritizing the resuscitation of an underground mining operation which was out of production since July 2015, the company’s secretary Allen Masiya says.
The underground mining operation went out of productions after the company’s continuous miner had a major breakdown.
“The company has managed to bring back the underground mine into operation producing an average of 15 000 tonnes per month since January 2018,” Masiya says.
“The target is to bring the operation to 50,000 tonnes per month, which will contribute significantly to the Company’s bottom line and enhance exports.”
Besides resuscitation of the underground mine operation, another company’s strategic priority is coke production.
“The Company’s intended takeover project of the Hwange Coal Gasification Company (HCGC) Coke oven battery pursuant to a BOOT Agreement with its Chinese partners in HCGC was delayed,” Masiya says.
“The Company has placed more emphasis and attention on the resuscitation of its own coke oven battery while it shall still continue exploring options for the takeover of the HCGC Battery.”
Hwange Colliery is on record accusing the Chinese coke production partner of failing to honour some of the contractual obligations.
Colliery, which has managed to reduce loss by 6% to US$23 million in the half of 2018 also priorities the Western Areas Development.
“The Company concluded an Exploration Agreement with Fugro Earth Resources to undertake exploration and drilling of the Western Areas Concession,” the secretary says.
“Commencement of works is expected in the last quarter of the current financial year.”
Hwange Colliery company was in 2015 granted three new concessions in the Western Area and the Lubimbi East and West.
Hwange’s open cast mining operation contributed 296,958 tonnes for the half-year production.
“There are still constraints in the internal logistics and processing section of the value chain,” Masiya says. “Efforts continue to be made to secure working capital to address these.”