The Sunday News
Walter Mswazie in Zvishavane
ZVISHAVANE-BASED platinum miner, Mimosa Mine will soon take delivery of US$10 million state-of-the-art new extraction equipment from South Africa which is expected to boost capacity at the mine.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a long service awards ceremony at the mine in Zvishavane on Friday, managing director Mr Fungai Makoni said the company was operating at about 110 percent capacity utilisation and producing excess.
He said the procurement of the new extraction plant was necessitated by a 27 days breakdown that the existing machine had.
“We had a breakdown of our machine when it just failed to work. The problem was, however, rectified but we had lost production worth 60 percent although this was not felt as we always operate above capacity. The new plant costs about US$10 million. Like what I have alluded to, we produce above target and we cannot quantify how much more we are going to produce apart from saying the new plant will improve efficiency,” he said.
Turning to beneficiation, Mr Makoni said Mimosa was eager to have a one-stop melting plant that would value add platinum.
“It is our desire to have a mineral processing plant so that we can come up with a finished product. This is capital intensive initiative which we cannot do alone. We are, however, open to partnership from other companies who can assist us establish such a plant for the purposes of value addition. We all need beneficiation so that we accrue payback in its entirety,” he said.
Since 2000, the company’s output has gradually increased and the mine now extracts 100 000 tonnes of platinum ore per year.
The company also contributes not less than US$3 million to the community as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) which has seen it supporting education through infrastructure development, health through provision of drugs and other consumables.
The company has also embarked on ambitious cattle fattening projects for local communities. The long service awards saw many employees including Mr Makoni walking away with shields for their service to the company ranging from between 10 to 15 years.
@walterbmswazie2
