Coal output to decline marginally

2012 is set to decline from 2 562 054 tonnes achieved in 2011 to 2 500 000 tonnes,” he said.
Mr Chitando said erratic power supplies, cash constraints and old machinery continued to weigh down operations.
The Chamber of Mines estimates that the country’s coal mining industry requires US$280 million to recapitalise in five years since 2010.
To date no significant capital has been ploughed into the mining sector due to various challenges.
Zimbabwe has two firms mining coal, namely Hwange Colliery Company, which is the biggest, and Makomo Resources with the third, Liberation Mine, still exploring.
Last year the Government issued 20 special coal grants but most of the projects are still to take off.
At peak production in the mid-1990s the country produced over five million tonnes of coal but since the turn of the millennium annual output has been hovering between two and three million tonnes.
Coal has been the dominant energy mineral for Zimbabwe over the years. The country boasts vast reserves of the mineral particularly in the northwest and southern parts of the country.
Internationally coal has become the single largest source of electricity generation in recent years especially in China.
According to the International Energy Agency, global coal demand is poised to grow by 600 000 tonnes everyday over the next five years due to increased power generation needs in emerging economies. — New Ziana.