adminLovemore Zigara, Midlands Correspondent
ASBESTOS miner Shabanie and Mashava Mines (SMM) has ventured into chrome mining as part of efforts to shore up capital internally to kick-start major production.
SMM has indicated that it intends to raise close to $200 million internally through various initiatives among them the disposal of some assets and mine dump recycling.
The asbestos miner will soon start recycling its dumps and already 50 workers have been employed with the figure expected to reach 153 employees by the end of March, management said.
The company’s chief executive officer, Mr Chirandu Dhlembeu, said the company has also ventured into chrome mining to raise funds to expedite the re-opening of the asbestos mine.
“We have various assets among them various mining claims of minerals such as gold, tantalite, nickel and chrome. We will be disposing some of these claims to raise money for our recapitalisation efforts,” he said.
“However, we are now working on some of our chrome claims that we have as a company and we are producing 1 200 tonnes of chrome per month. This will also help us in raising the money required for us to start operations in both Zvishavane and Mashava,” added Mr Dhlembeu.
So far the asbestos miner has raised $14, 8 million through the various initiatives. About $60 million is needed for the miner to resume operations and a timeframe of two to three years has been given for production to reach full throttle at SMM.
The giant miner ceased operations in 2005, a development that left about 5 000 workers jobless. The asbestos miner, which is the sixth largest in the world, has a lifespan of 17 years and is sitting on 1 billion tonnes worth of asbestos fibre worth over $9 billion under the current world prices of the commodity.
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