Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve recently in Hwange
THE nation’s drive towards value addition and beneficiation of its coal resources has taken a major leap forward, with the US$8 million coke oven battery at Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) now 95 percent complete.
Pre-heating of the facility is set to begin next week, marking a critical milestone in the country’s quest to maximise its mineral wealth and boost industrial growth.
A recent visit by Zimpapers to the project site revealed significant progress, with engineers and technicians putting final touches on the state-of-the-art facility.
Once operational, the coke oven battery will process coal into high-value coke, a key ingredient in steel production, while also extracting lucrative by-products such as tar, bitumen, and carbon black.
HCCL Administrator Mr Munashe Shava confirmed the developments, stating that the project was now in its final stages before full commissioning.
“The coke oven battery is now sitting at 95 percent, which basically means that we are done. The next stage is what we call pre-heating
“The coke oven battery needs to operate at temperatures of about 1 200 degrees Celsius, and you need to build that heat up to those levels over time. The projections are that we need about 65 to 90 days to build that heat. So that is the process that we are now beginning later in this month, around the 15th of August. We are starting pre-heating before we introduce the coal into the battery. So that is where we are,” said Mr Shava.
Mr Shava said the project would revolutionize HCCL’s operations, moving the company beyond mere coal mining into high-value processing.
“What we are doing, as we already alluded to, is we are now not just mining coal and selling coal products. We are now producing coke. We are now value-adding into coke, and not only that, we are also going to be processing by-products, tar into bitumen, we are also going to do the gas recovery, and we are also going to do what we call further processing to get carbon black, which is a high-value product. So our revenue generation is now going to be multi-streamed, and we are excited about that,” he said.
He added that the project aligns with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and will contribute significantly towards Zimbabwe’s goal of achieving an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.
“Definitely, we are actually looking forward to contributing significantly towards the achievement of mid-income status,” he said.
The Minister of Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere, highlighted the strategic importance of the coke oven battery in enhancing Zimbabwe’s steel industry and reducing reliance on imports.
“In order to produce foundry coke and metallurgical coke, which is of great importance in terms of steel production, that is the greatest part in terms of importance in terms of metallurgical coke, in terms of ensuring that we can then produce more steel resources,” said Dr Muswere
