adminMunyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
KWEKWE Roasting Plant is set to resume operations next month after the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) shortlisted 18 potential investors to inject capital into the dump treatment and fresh ore toll treatment plant in the gold mining town. MMCZ recently flighted tenders for interested partners and investors to inject capital into the Kwekwe roasting plant which was serving 23 mines in and around the Midlands Province after suspending operations in 2009.
The tender is for the treatment of the calcine dumps at the Kwekwe Roasting Plant site, which is wholly owned by Government, as well as the establishment of a refractory gold recovery facility at the plant site for the processing of refractory gold ore from supplier mines.
As a result of low gold recoveries at the plant, there are calcine gold dumps at the roasting plant with already milled material at the surface estimated to be 345 000 tonnes at an average grade of 10 grammes per tonne.
The plant was designed to process gold which has a high content of sulphite and has a sophisticated processing method that requires a specific technology.
In an interview on the sidelines of a tour of the site by Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko last week, MMCZ acting chief executive officer Mr Richard Chingodza said the roasting plant was expected to resume operations next month once a potential suitor has been identified among the 18 that have been shortlisted.
Mr Chingodza said about 300 jobs will be created once the plant is running while hundreds other will be created once the 23 mines also come back to life.
He said once the mine comes back to life, it will use a new technology of processing gold which is not roasting which he said was environmentally unfriendly and outdated.
“We have tonnes of arsenic dump that has gold in it that we have not started refining. If processed we are likely to get more than three tonnes of gold. This will generate close to $80 million. This could have been about $160 million had it not been for the plummeting gold prices on the international market,” he said.
Mr Chingodza said MMCZ was in the process of identifying a potential partner who will inject $20 million to revive the roasting plant.
The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has already flighted tenders for potential investors or partners. At least 18 bidders, including foreign investors, have been received and the adjudication process is already underway.
“We are hoping that by next month we would have identified a suitor which will subsequently lead to the resumption of operations,” said Mr Chingodza.
derick.khumalo