The Sunday News
Fairness Moyana
PAN African resources company Mwana Africa has shown interest in investing in local coal producers following reports that it intends to restart its platinum smelting plants in Bindura which have been down since 2009.
The smelting plants use a lot of electricity hence the need to have guaranteed power supplies.
Mwana Africa chief executive officer Mr Kalaa Mpinga and officials from its subsidiaries Freda Rebecca and Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC) last week visited Coalbrick Mine in Hwange to thrash out a partnership deal that will see continuous supply of coal.
In an interview on the sidelines of the tour of the mine, Mr Mpinga said BNC was looking at partnering a local coal producer ahead of its plans to restart its smelting plants hence the visit was meant to see production levels at Coalbrick Mine.
“In this industry it is common to pay courtesy visits to each other and this visit is such. However, since we are working on restarting our smelters which have been down since 2009 this is a good opportunity to see how we can get the coal to fire the plants,” said Mr Mpinga.
He said his company in the past resorted to importing coal from South Africa following limited supply from Hwange Colliery Company, a situation that resulted in the company shutting down its smelters as foreign currency became hard to come by.
The development forced the company to export concentrate resulting in loss of other minerals that are extracted in platinum processing.
Meanwhile, Coalbrick Mine managing director Dr Cephas Mandlenkosi Msipa said the visit by the high powered delegation from Mwana Africa was critical for both parties.
“We believe that BNC can achieve an additional smelting capacity without compromising the electricity supply and while we believe there was a solution to the increased demand for power which centred on coal production we agreed that the usage of electricity has to be accompanied by some contributions from users to the generation of electricity,” said Dr Msipa.
Sources said Mwana Africa was negotiating a coal supply deal with Zimbabwe Power Company from which it requires 30MW per month for its platinum smelters.
As part of the arrangement BNC would buy coal on behalf of ZPC that would supply it with 30MW for its smelters through Munyati Power Station.
