Disco wants local foundry to benefit
Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco) is setting up structures and policies to ensure that the local foundry industry benefits from its Manhize project, company Managing Director Benson Xu has said.
Rudairo Mapuranga
This was revealed at the handover ceremony of the Disco mining lease by the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Hon Winston Chitando at the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) offices on Thursday.
Speaking at the ceremony, Disco Managing Director Benson Xu said the project which is now 70 per cent complete was going to ensure that the local foundry sector benefits by leaving room for downstream Steel using companies to continue with their line of work without Disco trying to manufacture everything.
“The assurance of mining lease to Dinson is very special. We appreciate the Minister of Mines and Mining Development for giving us such confidence and for his continuous support. We have achieved so much from 2018 when we started the project because of the support of the Minister. We are now very busy with the installation of the equipment, we hope that by the end of the year, we will achieve the target to commission blast furnaces. We are still very confident that by the end of this year, we will commission this plant. The new Manhize town has been approved by the local authority. We are saying that Dinsom is going to produce steel and we would want to invite a lot of local participants to come and work with us. Our intention is to ensure that the local foundry sector benefit from Dinson Iron and Steel,” Xu said.
The Dinson Iron and Steel Company (DISCO) Steel Plant is one of the Tsingshan Group of China’s mining projects in Zimbabwe. Tsingshan Group is one of the biggest investors with various other projects such as Afrochine Smelting (Pvt) Ltd in Selous, Mashonaland West which is into chrome smelting and Dinson Colliery (Pvt) Ltd in Hwange, Matabeleland which is into coke production. All these projects are interlinked as both ferrochrome and coke are required in steel production.
The coming of Disco has been duped as an accomplishment of another milestone towards the successful development of the mining sector and the national economy at large. According to the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Hon Winston Chitando, “This is another step forward as we work towards the achievement of a USD12 billion mining industry by 2023 and ultimately feed into the national vision of Zimbabwe becoming an Upper-Middle Income Economy by the year 2030.”
As outlined in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), some of the strategies being employed to grow the mining sector include attracting funding, enhanced exploration, the opening of new mines, re-opening of closed mines, expansion of existing mines as well as improving levels of local mineral beneficiation. This project is therefore a clear testimony of the government’s commitment towards value addition and beneficiation of minerals. Since the closure of ZISCO Steel, there has been very little production of steel in the country. Currently, only Steelmakers is producing steel.
About Dinson Iron and Steel project
The investment span of the project is from exploration to mining, beneficiation, and value addition. Therefore, covering the entire iron and steel value chain which will result in the creation of jobs, infrastructure development of participating provinces, generation of foreign currency and eventually contributing towards the economy of Zimbabwe.
DISCO (Pvt) Ltd was granted a Mining Special Grant Certificate (SG7126) in March 2021 which gave them the permission to explore and mine iron ore along the Mwanesi Range.