The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
COAL mining giant, Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) has submitted its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for one of its new concessions to the Enviromental Manangement Agency (Ema) as it forges ahead to increase its mine lifespan.
HCCL managing director Engineer Thomas Makore said the EIA for the Western Areas concession has been completed and the company was working on a financial closure with its strategic partner to conduct exploration and drilling work.
“The environmental impact assessment at Western Areas is complete. The EIA’s at the Lubimbi concessions are still in progress. The contract for the exploration and drilling for the Western Areas concession is in place. However, we are setting up the funding structure so that the contract can commence,” said Eng Makore.
He said funding for other new concessions, Lubimbi West and Lubimbi East was work in progress. Lubimbi West concession which is located in Binga District would be utilised for power coal mining with the resource to be obtained from the mine being used for power generation at Mlibizi Thermal Power Station.
HCCL entered into a coal supply agreement with Pan African Energy Resource which would be operating Mlibizi Thermal Power Station. Lubimbi East concession, which is located in Lupane District is a coal bed methane gas reserve.
“The Lubimbi West concession funding for development will be mapped out after the coal off-taker has completed the project financial close for the power station. The coal bed methane reserves at Lubimbi East concession require testing and assessment of the gas quality and quantity. This work also needs funding which Hwange Colliery is pursuing from various institutions,” said Eng Makore.
The new concessions hold deposits in excess of a billion tonnes of coal consisting of both coking coal and thermal coal, giving HCCL an additional estimated life of mine of above 70 years. The coal-mining giant was now facing a challenge to ensure that its mine lifespan was extended since the resources at its opencast concessions were on the verge of depletion.
HCCL has since agreed on a payment plan with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to settle its outstanding levies over the last two years. It is understood the ministry was deliberately withholding its comments to accompany the EIA report for Lubimbi West and Lubimbi East concessions.
“We have payment plans with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and need to pay Ema so that we get our EIA certificate,” said Eng Makore.
He said the company was in negotiations with a number of financial institutions with regards to financing the development of its new concessions but hinted that “financial institutions require the resource statement of our coal deposits”.
HCCL’s environmental consultancy firm Environmental Guardians Services (EGS) confirmed the submission of Western Areas’ EIA report.
“The EIA report for Western Areas has been submitted to Ema, what is left is for HCCL to come up with a payment plan and agree to a review fee with Ema. A report has been compiled for Lubimbi East in Lupane which is for gas mining and we will be submitting it next week.
“However, completion of the EIA report for Lubimbi West is being delayed by the fact that the Binga Rural District Council wants to have a meeting with HCCL concerning the concession. Lubimbi is in Binga and will be mining power coal for Mlibizi Thermal Power Station,” said EGS senior environmental consultant Mr Michael Montana.
EGS is one of the country’s most reputable environmental consultancy firms and has conducted a number of EIA reports for mines over the years. Of note it has done EIA reports for Chilota, Cina Africa Sunlight Energy, Liberation Mining (coal mining), Golden Valley IV, Kent Mining, Patridge Mine, Pink Panther, Nigel West, Spitzkop Seven (gold mining), Mbalabala Quarry and Business Integrated Technics (BIT) Resources (quarry granite mining).
@DNsingo
