[miningmx.com] – MINING companies in Zimbabwe have described the current year as a period of negative and positive halves.
On the one hand, the Zimbabwean government saved its miners from total collapse under the heavy saddle of fiscal demands and on the other, it softened demands that platinum miners speedily build a base metals refinery inside the country.
The mining sector in Zimbabwe has continued to be a major mainstay of the country’s economy with mineral exports accounting for 52% of the country’s total exports worth $2.4bn as of end-October, 2014.
The major international mining companies all have a presence in Zimbabwe, but their growth plans and expansion programs appeared to falter under the weight of a difficult operating environment in the country, with softer commodity prices also contributing to this.
It has mostly been the gold mines – Blanket, owned by Caledonia and Freda Rebecca owned by Mwana Africa – that have outlined and acted on their expansion plans. Mwana Africa is additionally raising funds to re-open its nickel refinery operation.
“Capital injections by mining houses, rebound in international gold prices as well as production rump-up at Freda Rebecca Mine will support higher gold production of 16,000 kg in 2015, up from the 14,500kg estimate for 2014,” said finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa.
The government has already established Fidelity Printers, a unit of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) as the sole buyer and marketer of all bullion produced in Zimbabwe.
However, there has been increased volatility for Zimbabwean platinum miners such as Zimplats, Unki and Mimosa which are owned by Impala Platinum, Anglo American Platinum and Aquarius Platinum respectively.
Johan Theron, the Implats spokesperson, said 2014 could best be described as a year of two halves, with Zimplats, delivering a “strong operational performance” and “progress in developing the Phase 2 expansion at the Ngezi mine” being made.
However, on the downside, the company encountered ground support problems at the Bimha mine which resulted in the closure of the mine. Zimplats has estimated that it will lose about 70,000 ounces from its 2015 target of about 240,000 ounces.
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