New smelting plant at Unki Mine

Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
UNKI Mine, the local unit of world leading platinum producer Anglo-American Platinum has shelved plans to refurbish Zimbabwe Alloys’ ferrochrome smelting plant and convert it into a platinum refinery after shareholders opted for the construction of a new refinery at its mining site in Shurugwi. In an interview on the sidelines of a mine tour last week, Unki Mine general manager Mr Walter Nemasase said shareholders of the parent company resolved to construct a smelting plant at the mining site in Shurugwi as the firm heeds Government’s call on value addition and beneficiation as espoused in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset).

Mr Nemasase said work on the plant would commence early next year and was set for completion in 18 to 24 months. “We have plans to construct a new smelting plant at our mining site. The deliberations have been made and the company owners approved the construction of the plant. We are going to start the construction of the plant by January 2016. The construction is likely to take 18 to 24 months depending on the inflow of capital. We are still evaluating the cost of the project and the production capacity of the plant. We had earlier engaged Zim Alloys but those were just options that we were weighing,” he said.

Last month, Zim Alloys judicial manager Mr Reggie Saruchera had confirmed that the Gweru based ferrochrome smelting company had been approached by Unki Mine intending to utilise their plant for platinum refinery although nothing had been put on paper. Another platinum miner, Zimplats, according to Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Fred Moyo, had also reached the final stages of the modification and refurbishment of its Base Metal Refinery (BMR) at its Selous Metallurgical Complex (SMC) a project which is estimated to gobble about $134 million.

He said the refurbishment of the BMR was in tandem with the Government beneficiation and value addition policy as also adopted in Zim Asset. “There are three key stages in platinum refinery and these are concentration, smelting and refining. Zimplats are now smelting while Unki and Mimosa are concentrating. In the next few weeks we will have a common position on how these companies are going to go about it,” he said.