Online Reporter
Oliver Kazunga
Senior Reporter
THE Government is planning a nationwide aeromagnetic survey to map the country’s underground gas potential, a move aimed at unlocking an estimated 40 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable coal-bed methane (CBM) in the Lupane-Lubimbi area of Matabeleland North province — one of the largest such deposits in Southern Africa — and drawing fresh investment into a resource that has so far remained largely untapped.
The CBM estimate is the equivalent of about 6,6 billion barrels of oil and can fuel power generation, transform regional industries and supply domestic energy needs for decades.
Once mapped, data on the reserves is expected to galvanise investment and potentially break the stop-start progress on one of Zimbabwe’s most promising but underexploited energy frontiers.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Dr Polite Kambamura told The Sunday Mail that the planned survey would, however, map the country’s mineral resources broadly.
“Very soon, Government will be undertaking national exploration and this will also cover airways or airfields that are underground,” he said. “It will assist us also to know the quantities of gas that the ground holds, which will make it easier for any junior mining company that will need to venture into further exploration.”
For CBM developers, the survey could remove one of the biggest obstacles to early-stage exploration. Rather than junior companies spending heavily to define their own “fairways” — the geological corridors most likely to hold commercial gas — the Government will do the defining for them.
“The national flyover will cover a wide range of all minerals. This will include gas, and the areas that these companies will now be going will actually be well defined instead of them starting to define the fairways,” Dr Kambamura said.
“They will be defined by Government, which will make it easier for them now to undertake further exploration.”
In Matabeleland North province, Zimbabwe has courted several investors into CBM exploration over the years. Hwange and Lupane are understood to hold gas resources exceeding 800 million cubic metres per square kilometre, while further studies point to more than 40 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable gas in the wider Lupane-Lubimbi area alone.
Government has not been short of takers.
In 2020, it issued special grants to six investors to explore and develop CBM for electricity generation in Matabeleland North: Alabara Resources, Zambezi Gas and Sakunda Energy — all Zimbabwean companies — alongside South Africa’s Tumagole and Shangani Energy Exploration (SEE), owned by Chinese steel giant Sinosteel.
A seventh grant followed in 2021, awarded to Australia-headquartered Jacqueline Resources (Pvt) Ltd.
Of these, Alabara Resources has gone furthest, completing the first phase of confirmatory drilling and moving into a second phase involving mine development.
“Unfortunately, not much was done so far with regard to coal-bed methane gas exploration due to a number of reasons, among them funding,” Dr Kambamura said.
“We have been re-engaging the companies, and some of the companies were at the stage of signing MoUs with Government, but they have not started actually any works on the ground.”
Government, Dr Kambamura said, expects renewed interest from grant-holders once the survey has been completed.
“So, its work in progress, but we are looking forward to seeing these companies coming back, maybe next year, after we finish the national flyover,” he said.
It is believed that the scale of the resource is significant.
The global coal-bed methane market is valued at roughly US$21 billion to US$23 billion this year and is forecast to keep expanding at an annual growth rate of around 5 percent to 6 percent through the early 2030s.
Its demand is mainly driven chiefly by demand for lower-carbon alternatives to coal and oil in power generation, as well as by industrial users such as steel plants and cement producers seeking cleaner-burning fuel.
Countries with proven CBM basins — Australia’s Surat and Bowen basins chief among them — have already converted coal-seam gas into a major LNG export earner, while China and India continue to expand domestic CBM output to meet rising electricity demand.
If even a fraction of Zimbabwe’s estimated 40 trillion cubic feet in the Lupane-Lubimbi area proves commercially recoverable, the resource could position the country as a new entrant in a global gas market still hungry for cleaner-burning fuel sources.
