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Blessings Chidakwa Herald Reporter
PLATINUM mining giant, Mimosa Mining Company, continues to expand operations, with its plant optimisation project having been completed, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Polite Kambamura has said.
Speaking after a tour of the mine in Zvishavane recently, Deputy Minister Kambamura lauded Mimosa for continuing with its expansion despite the challenges of fluctuating global metal prices.
“I toured the Mimosa mining company in Zvishavane to check on their progress on their projects,” he said. “The first one is plant optimisation. As you know with time every machine gets old and by doing so it reduces its performance or its efficiency.
“So, the plant optimisation project was all about increasing the plant recoveries by fine-tuning the plant and replacing some old parts of the plant and also increasing some other catalytic measures to facilitate increased efficiency. This project is complete and next year the plant will be officially commissioned.”
Mimosa had also invested heavily in the North Hill project, where exploration has been completed, with a new mine set for construction.
Deputy Minister Kambamura said the company was producing about two million tonnes of ores for platinum group metals each year.
He commended the company for committing not to lay off any of its close to 4 000 workers.
“More than 3 800 people are employed at Mimosa despite depressed metal prices and intentionally Mimosa is not going to lay off any employee, but they have put shock absorbers into their own system to make sure that they sail through this turbulence,” he said. Deputy Minister Kambamura expressed satisfaction with the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.
“I had a chance to visit Mberengwa Clinic, one of their CSR projects in Mberengwa. So far, they finished building male and female wards, each with a capacity to have 29 beds for patients. They have also built a mortuary,” he said.
“Furthermore, they constructed an administration block and the equipment for laundry is already on site. Some hospital beds are already on site and they are looking forward to fully equipping the hospital with state-of-the-art equipment. They are bringing health right to where people are.”
Mimosa’s general manager Mr Stephen Ndiyamba said: “You may be aware that currently our industry is faced with low metal prices, which therefore means we have to tighten our belts and be more efficient in what we do. We have a lot of continuous projects to improve that are going on.”
Online Reporter