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Harare Bureau
Anglo American Platinum has said that it will go ahead with plans to build a smelter at Unki Mine in 2016 which will see benefits of up to 20 percent. Amplats chief financial officer Colin Chibafa told a media briefing at Unki Mine in Shurugwi last Friday that contrary to reports the group would not construct a “second hand” smelter but will use material which had already been bought by the group for its operations in South Africa.
“What we want to do is to build a smelter at the least possible new capital spend. We’re not going to set up a second hand smelter but rather make use of new equipment which is already within the Amplats storage. It’ll be a 10MW smelter.”
Chibafa said that there was no going back on the project with approvals expected to have been received at the end of the year.
“Work is expected to commence early next year.”
This comes as the government has directed platinum mining companies to set up refineries in the country to beneficiate the mineral in order for the country to realise optimum returns.
However, the mining companies have been dragging their feet arguing they still need to build the critical mass production to make construction of platinum refinery economically justifiable.
The mining houses also cited limited electricity generation capacity as another constraint that first needs to be addressed prior to setting up of a refinery to value add the mineral.
But the government has insisted on the facility arguing the country needs to fully benefit from extraction of platinum. As such, it introduced a 15 percent on raw exports in January, which was later suspended.
This was on condition that the miners, who claimed the levy had rendered operations unprofitable after a fall in global prices, demonstrate their commitment to establish a refinery in the country.
Chibafa said while miners acknowledged that the 15 percent tax had been suspended through an announcement, there had not been a statutory instrument released to give effect to it.
On the power situation, Chibafa said Unki, together with other platinum miners were assured of power till about 2020 as they had prepayments to help Zesa pay its debt to HCB Mozambique and to kickstart Kariba South Power Station expansion.
In terms of production, Unki said it expects a flat production outcome at full year at 61,000 ounces.
For the quarter to September production was at 16,000oz. This, the group said, was despite a five-day shutdown that occurred at the mine during the period under review.
“Unki mine production was flat at 16,000 ounces for the quarter despite a five-day shut down for general plant maintenance, due to grade optimisation,” the platinum mining giant said in its latest quarterly report.
Meanwhile, Unki expects to complete the first phase of its massive $120 million housing project in Shurugwi by December. Chibafa said the first phase will see the release of 350 houses to its workers while in total the group will construct 900 houses. The project will also comprise a primary school.
“We’re currently constructing three different sets of houses which will be made available to employees. We’ve also just completed the construction of a primary school within the complex.”
Online Reporter