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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S largest gold producer, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, has embarked on a US$2 million exploration programme expected to extend the life of the mine beyond five years at the current production rate of 2,5 million tonnes of ore annually.
Established in 1987, the Bindura-based gold asset which is a member of Kuvimba Mining House (KMH), has an installed capacity to process 2,8 million tonnes of ore per annum from underground and open pit operations.
Gold is strategically important to Zimbabwe’s economy given it is the country’s single largest export earner and an integral element of the Government’s US$12 million mining economy target by the end of this year.
Speaking during a media tour organised by KMH, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine managing director Mr Patrick Maseva-Shayawabaya said: “At the current rate of extraction our life of mine is +/- five years. We need to increase that life and this exploration programme that we started, is a start to extending that life beyond five years
“It was a fairly successful programme, we spent US$900 000 and we generated 1,5 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 2,33 grammes per tonne (g/t) which is higher than our current open pit grade.
“The resource that was generated is what the geologists call inferred resource, it means that the confidence level in it is not high enough for us to mine. What we need to do now is to do additional drilling so that we upgrade it from the inferred status to at least indicated status- all that it says is we will have a higher level of confidence in the volume of ore that is available.
“That will cost us US$2 million to complete and we hope that by the time we complete that infill drilling programme the quantum of ore and the grade will either be confirmed or they will both go up.”
Since the acquisition, Freda has received about US$22 million from KMH for investment in capital projects and the gold miner has commissioned a number of projects that include a Return Water Dam and Penstock facility to the tune of US$6,1 million.
“These two facilities have the effect of improving the stability of our tailings storage facility.
“We have also just completed a 25-metre diameter thickener and we expect to commission it by the end of this quarter that we are in. It will improve process control and designs.
Production at the gold mine now averages 80 000oz annually.
In its first quarter that ran from April to June 2023, Freda, which employs about 879 people directly and around 900 through contractors, produced 19 000 ounces of gold.
“When you look at it in terms of kilogrammes produced, it was 603kg compared to 592kg for the same period last year.
“We aspire to get that number to be above 20 000oz but as an overall assessment, the performance for the quarter was a good one for us despite the fact that we lost many hours due to power cuts.
“But we were really able to compensate for that by higher throughput and also a higher grade.
“You see that we had a grade of 1,53g/t for the quarter compared to 1,49g/t for the comparable quarter last year,” Mr Maseva-Shayawabaya said.
Freda has a toll processing agreement with its sister company, Shamva Gold Mine that is situated about 30km east of Bindura.
“When Kuvimba took over Freda in 2020, they also took over Shamva Gold Mine which does not have a processing plant of its own.
“So, in 2021 and 2022 Freda and Shamva had an agreement for Freda to purchase the ore from Shamva . . . we changed that agreement from an ore purchase to a toll processing agreement in other words, when Shamva delivers their ore to Freda, we process it for them and the recovered gold is attributed to them,” he said.
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