Kuvimba to build 6MW solar plant at Freda

Oliver Kazunga

Senior Business Reporter

Mining group Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) says it has embarked on a project to instal a six-megawatt (MW) solar plant at its Bindura-based subsidiary Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, as part of initiatives the company is undertaking to secure power supply across its operations and boost production.

The mining group operates a diversified portfolio of mines organised into four clusters of minerals, namely gold, bulk commodities (iron, steel and chrome), platinum group metals (PGMs) and energy minerals (nickel and lithium).

Under the gold cluster, KMH operates Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, its flagship, as well as Shamva and Jena mines, which contribute 20 percent and 10 percent of total production, respectively.

In the financial year that ended March 31, 2024, the group produced 3 240 kilogrammes of gold, of which Freda delivered 70 percent of the total output.

During this financial year, the group targets to improve output by 8 percent to 3 500kg of gold, spurred by ore volumes and increased processing plant efficiencies.

Mining is one of Zimbabwe’s major economic sectors, contributing over 75 percent of the national export earnings with the yellow metal, which is expected to generate US$4 billion going forward, from about US$2,7 billion in 2018.

In 2022, Zimbabwe produced a record 35,3 tonnes of gold, while production last year declined to 30,1 tonnes owing to operational challenges small-scale miners faced, which relate to power constraints, among other factors.

The Government has pledged to address the challenges facing the mining industry to achieve the gold production target of 40 tonnes this year.

KMH acting chief executive officer Engineer Trevor Barnard last week said the entity, like any other mining house in the country, was being affected by the limited power supply and load-shedding.

“A few things that we are doing . . . We are busy installing specific power distribution or transmission lines, which are dedicated to the operations so that you do not have any other customers feeding off those lines.

“And the purpose of that is we can get a dedicated supply and we are also allowed to then purchase power offshore and supply the mines.

“The vehicle we are using to do that is called the Intensive Energy Users Group — that is one option that we have and we have not implemented it yet, because we are still busy getting dedicated transmission lines to our operations,” he said.

Eng Barnard said KMH was also installing solar electrical plants at its operations.

“So, the purpose of that is to bring the cost of your electricity down, and when you do not need the solar, you can then supply that to ZETDC (Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company) and ZETDC can supply it back to you during the peak periods.

“We are working very closely with ZETDC to ensure that they understand the importance of keeping the mines running.

“Every time you stop and start, you lose not just the period that you stop and start, but also the period to get your operations to run stable,” he said.

In its submissions to the Government ahead of the 2024 mid-term budget review on Thursday this week, the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (COMZ) recommended an electricity tariff of USc10/kWh to guarantee the viability of mining companies.

“Electricity tariff for mining companies at USc14,21/kWh is high and unaffordable. Information gathered from platinum producers indicate the severe impact of current electricity tariffs on the viability of smelting facilities within the PGMs industry.

“PGMs producers have indicated that it has become unsustainable to run their smelters at the current tariff. If the situation is not resolved, we may witness scaling down of smelting activities in the PGMs industry,” said COMZ.

In an interview during a media tour of Freda Rebecca Gold Mine in Bindura last week, managing director Mr Patrick Maseva-Shayawabaya, who is also the group’s head of the gold cluster, spoke about the power challenges at the facility.

“As far as the supply of power is concerned, Freda is subject to power outages like all other users of power in Zimbabwe because the country is not generating enough. And to address that, we have entered into an agreement with an independent power producer that will construct a solar farm, which will then supply power to us as Freda.

“That will supply 30 percent of our current power consumption. We use about 20MW,” he said.

Meanwhile, KMH has implemented a mine-to-market traceability software it adopted in 2021, in compliance with international regulatory requirements for transparency and accountability in the mining industry.

The software enables the tracking of all the minerals produced within the group, from extraction to marketing.