Dutch firm to commence exploration at Hwange

PHILLIMON MHLANGA

Netherlands-based company, Fugro Earth Resources, is expected to commence exploration works at listed coal mining giant Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL)’s new concessions before year-end.

HCCL and Fugro signed the exploration and drilling contract of the new coal fields in November last year after an open tender process.

Julian Muskwe, the acting board chairperson at HCCL, which is listed at the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and also trades its shares on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges, disclosed the latest development in the financial results published last month.

“Commencement of exploration works is expected in the last quarter of the current financial year,” Muskwe said in a statement accompanying the financial results for the half year ended June 30 2018.

HCCL, which used to enjoy a monopoly in coal production in the country until the emergence of other players such as Makomo Resources, Coal Brick and Chilota Colliery in 2010 who chipped off its market s h a r e , was granted new concessions by government in 2015.

The troubled miner’s revival, experts said, depended on the exploration of the three concessions namely Western Areas, Lubimbi East and Lubimbi West because the current resources as its opencast concessions are on the verge of depletion.

The new concessions are expected to increase the life of the mine by about 70 years. It is understood that the new mining concessions hold deposits in excess of one billion tonnes of coal consisting of both coking and thermal coal at Western Areas and Lubimbi West.

The Lubimbi East concession has coal-bed methane gas, according to preliminary reports.

Presently, HCCL’s underground operations have a much longer mine life than its opencast concessions.

However, the underground mine had been closed since mid-2015 until late last year, when the underground operations were fully resuscitated after taking delivery of coal extraction equipment from South Africa. The underground mine is the main source of coke and coking coal. The project is part of the company’s turnaround plans anchored on increasing production and sales as it takes advantage of the scheme of arrangement approved last year to stagger debt payments

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