The Sunday News
GOVERNMENT is seeking to recapitalise Shabanie and Mashaba Mines (SMM) by channelling part of equipment that will be secured under the $100 million loan facility by XCMG — a Chinese company – to the asbestos miner as well as courting a Belarus mining equipment manufacturer and supplier, a Cabinet official said.
In an interview with Sunday Business on the sidelines of the Mine Entra exhibition at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair exhibition centre on Wednesday, Mines and Mining Development Minister Cde Walter Chidhakwa said efforts to revive SMM were under way with Government exploring various ways to recapitalise the mines.
This follows the collapse of negotiations between Government and unnamed South African and Russian banks for a financial bailout to resuscitate SMM.
“We need an initial amount of $17 million to get the mines going and we have included the list of machinery required by SMM under the Chinese facility and we have also included some of the equipment to come from Belarus, the same company that supplied us with equipment for Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL),” Cde Chidhakwa said.
Government signed a $100 million equipment loan facility for small-scale miners with XCMG, Chinese mining equipment suppliers last month.
The Belarus company, Belaz, which the Government was also engaging, happens to be the same, which supplied HCCL with dump trucks and front-end loaders in March under a vendor financing scheme.
The mines are constantly affected by floods a situation which has resulted in equipment worth millions of dollars being reportedly trapped underground by rising water levels.
“We have to continue to de-water the mines as long as we are not operating and the mines are under care and maintenance. The bigger part of the maintenance is to de-water them. So we continue to do that because from time to time they (mines) flood,” Cde Chidhakwa said.
At its peak, the former asbestos mining giant employed about 7 000 workers.
Meanwhile Mr Chidhakwa also said Government will not renew some claims owned by chrome giants Zim Alloys and Zimasco in order to pave way for new players in the sector.
Speaking during the official opening of Mine Entra on Wednesday, Mr Chidhakwa said Government would not allow companies to hold huge concessions for speculative purposes while other citizens are left out.
“We cannot allow chrome resources or any other resources for that matter to be held for speculative purposes while others in the economy want to participate and put the claims into productive use. We will give them a noble line of mining and we will not renew the rest of the claims so that they can be allocated to our small-scale miners,” Cde Chidhakwa said.
He said Zim Alloys and Zimasco owned over 50 000 hectares of chrome concessions while small-scale miners, most of whom live close to these idle concessions, are struggling to get chrome claims.
Mr Chidhakwa said Government was committed to ensure that small-scale miners were fully absorbed in the chrome sector.
He said a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) shall be established to buy chrome from the small-scale miners who are facing difficulties in securing a lucrative market for their chrome.
The minister said the SPV would also be mandated to look for chrome processing facilities from countries such as China and South Africa which have since expressed their willingness to assist the country in value addition of chrome.
Zimbabwe Mining Federation president Ms Apolonia Munzverengi said the establishment of SPV was expected to boost the business for small-scale miners.
“We hope this is going to be implemented very soon because that is the only way small-scale miners can boost their operations and realise meaningful profit. At the moment miners are being robbed by unscrupulous buyers who pay us peanuts,” she said.
