adminFERROCHROME producer ZimAlloys said on Sunday it is still searching for partners to inject funds into the company to enable it resume operations. The mining firm ceased operations in 2008 due to lack of capital, but resumed in 2012 as use of multiple foreign currencies reduced production costs. However, the government ban on exports of chrome ore as well as a fall in prices harmed ZimAlloys finances.
The government banned exports of chrome ore in April 2011 as a way of forcing companies to process the metal locally.
ZimAlloys finance director Munyaradzi Dube told New Ziana the company was still in the hunt for potential investors to resume mining operations.
“Yes we are still searching for potential partners. Investors have been coming from all over and there is hope,” he said.
The mining firm has one of the oldest chrome smelting plants in Africa, having been built in 1949.
It has been struggling to raise $40 million to rebuild three chrome smelting furnaces in Gweru which were shut down in 2008 due to rising maintenance costs and lack of capital.
Chinese companies have over the past years been heavily investing in ferrochrome.
Zimbabwe’s chrome ore reserves are high grade and estimated at around 560 million tonnes (about 15 percent of global supply) situated along the Great Dyke, a mineral strike stretching 530 kilometres.
Industry analysts say the failure by companies to attract financing, coupled with erratic power supplies, has hampered efforts of chrome producers to boost local refinery capacity. – New Ziana
derick.khumalo