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Business Reporter
PLATINUM mining giant Zimplats will shell out US$134 million for rehabilitation and commissioning of its mothballed Selous Metallurgical Complex Base Metal Refinery.
Resuscitation of the BMR is in sync with Government’s thrust to add value to locally produced minerals as espoused by the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation. Government recently began levying a 15 percent tax on the export of unrefined platinum, saying miners had failed to provide a clear roadmap on how they intend to beneficiate locally.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa had last year deferred the tax to January 2017 to allow miners time to build smelters and refineries. Platinum miners recently said they had submitted plans to Government in line with a directive to construct a precious metals refinery within two years or face a ban on raw exports.
Bindura Nickel Corporation has also floated a US$20 million bond to raise funds to restart its smelter refinery which was mothballed in 2008. Zimplats chief executive officer Mr Alex Mhembere said work towards bringing the refinery back on stream would
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Zimplats in US$134m BMR refurbishment
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be completed by June next year.
“In line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation and the Government of Zimbabwe’s thrust on beneficiation, the group made a strategic decision to refurbish and commission the mothballed Selous Metallurgical Complex Base Metal Refinery (BMR) at an estimated cost of US$134 million.
“Orders for long lead items have already been placed and implementation of the project started in July 2014 and is expected to be completed by June 2016,” said Mr Mhembere in his half-year directors’ report and condensed interim financial statements for the period ending December 31, 2014.
Last year, Impala Platinum chief executive officer Mr Terence Goodlace said Zimplats was committed to a “first stage” refurbishment of the BMR to partially process platinum matte. Zimplats is 87 percent owned by Implats of South Africa.
The refurbished BMR will expand installed capacity from 90 000 ounces per annum to 270 000 ounces.
It is understood that beneficiating the platinum matte helps producers to realise 88,5 percent of potential revenue, getting 89,7 percent at BMR stage and rising to 90 percent at precious metal stage.
Presently, Zimbabwe exports platinum matte and concentrate for further processing in South Africa.
The Zimplats’s smelter, on the northern Great Dyke, is the only PGMs smelter in the country.
PGMs are a family of six metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium) that have similar chemical and physical properties.
Construction of the Zimplats smelter started in 1995 under a BHP/Delta Gold of Australia joint venture.
The furnace was lined mid-1996 and smelting began in 1997 but due to design challenges, the Elkem Furnace was modified by Hatch in 1998. The smelter had not reached full capacity when operations were suspended in 1999.
Once refurbishment of the BMR is completed, more electricity will be required.
Analysts say even after the conclusion of the expansion of Kariba South Power Station and Hwange Thermal Power Station, which will bring 600MW of electricity to the grid, more electricity will still be required.
Zimplats has indicated plans to import power to supplement what is generated from the local grid should the need arise.
The country, which has the world’s second largest deposits after South Africa, has three platinum mining companies – Zimplats, Unki and Mimosa – producing a combined 420 000 ounces per annum.
Meanwhile, Mr Mhembere said the Mupfuti Mine development was on track and would be completed this year.
Mupfuti Mine is expected to reach design production capacity in the first quarter of this year.
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