Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

Oil and gas giant Total will be rebranded as TotalEnergies as it shifts some of its focus towards renewable energy sources.

Shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move and approved the firm’s environmental goals. “We want to become a sort of green energy major,” said chief executive Patrick Pouyanné.

Big energy firms are coming under increasing pressure to adjust to a lower-carbon world.

Last week, a small hedge fund investor succeeded in ousting two board members at Exxon in the US, in a bid to alter the firm’s direction on climate change.

And a court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its emissions more quickly than the Anglo-Dutch oil firm had planned.

Total, the world’s fourth-largest privately-owned oil and gas producer, is aiming to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, in part by investing in more solar and wind power projects. While several small investors opposed the company’s plans at the annual general meeting, arguing they did not go far enough, the resolution was passed with more than 90 percent of the vote. European energy firms have moved more quickly than their US counterparts to begin the transition away from fossil fuels, said Mike Coffin, senior analyst in oil and gas at financial think tank Carbon Tracker. — BBC

A worker at a mine in Colleen Bawn has been arrested after he stabbed his employer to death with a kitchen knife for firing his two workmates.

Matabeleland South acting provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Thabani Mkhwananzi confirmed the incident which occurred at Heathfield Mine in Colleen Bawn on Tuesday at around 9pm. He said the now deceased Nelson Ngwenya (55) dismissed two workers for allegedly stealing explosives and Nqobile Moyo (20) later teamed up with them and confronted their employer over the matter.

“I can confirm that we recorded a murder case which occurred at Heathfield Mine in Colleen Bawn. The now deceased who owned the mine, Nelson Ngwenya fired his two workers, Moses Banda (23) and Cuthbert Tshuma (24) for stealing explosives.

“On the same day at around 9pm, Ngwenya was seated with some of his workers at the mine when Moyo arrived with his two workmates that had been fired and confronted Ngwenya over the matter,” he said.

Asst Insp Mkhwananzi said Moyo went towards a shed which was close to where they were standing and picked up a kitchen knife. He said Moyo stabbed Ngwenya in the chest and his workmates restrained him. Asst Insp Mkhwananzi said Ngwenya died on the spot and his body was taken to the Gwanda Provincial Hospital mortuary. He said Moyo was arrested while Tshuma and Banda fled from the scene and were still at large. Asst Insp Mkhwananzi urged members of the public to desist from resorting to violence when faced with disputes.

“We would also like to appeal to members of the public with information on the whereabouts of Tshuma and Banda to contact any nearest police station,” he said.

Sunday News

DIVERSIFIED mining group, RioZim, has taken delivery of equipment for the proposed US$17 million Biological Oxidation (BIOX) plant at the firm’s Cam and Motor gold mining operation in Kadoma.

When commissioned, it is hoped that the plant will go a long way in ensuring RioZim beneficiates its precious minerals by processing pure oxide ores to make good grades and high recoveries.

This will in turn generate more foreign currency when exported. In its 2020 annual report released this week, RioZim said progress on the BIOX project had been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as suppliers were affected by the lockdowns and travel restrictions in the first half of 2020.

However, the project’s activities resumed in the second half of the prior year although at a slow space after lockdown measures were eased and the group managed to bring about the project by taking delivery of the bulk of the equipment for the capital expenditure programme.

“Despite the funding and Covid-19 challenges, the company managed to steamroll the project to bring civil works to near completion and managed to take delivery of the bulk of the equipment by year end.

“Installations commenced post year end and are progressing well. As at the reporting date, the company was engaged in discussions with potential lenders to secure the remaining funding requirements to complete the projects and the company is hopeful of reaching financial closure,” said RioZim.

In 2019, the group embarked on various capital raising initiatives to fund the completion of the BIOX plant, which holds the future of Cam and Motor Mine.

Such capital raising initiatives included approaching RioZim’s bankers and other financial institutions and financiers both local and foreign for possible US dollar funding.

“The company remains optimistic of concluding and commissioning the BIOX plant within the ensuing reporting year.

“The completion of the BIOX plant remains a key priority for the company as we pursue value creation for all stakeholders.

“The success of this project will be pivotal for the sustenance of the Cam & Motor Mine,” it said.

RioZim said it will build on its exploration drive from the prior year in order to upgrade and increase confidence levels on all resources across all its mines in light of the declining grades at Renco, One-Step and Dalny mines.

During the year under review, the group’s gold production declined by 27 percent from 1,66 tonnes achieved in the prior year to 1,21 tonnes.

Throughout 2020, the group’s flagship operation Cam & Motor Mine carried out mining activities from the nearby One-Step mine hauling low grade ore to the Cam & Motor plant for processing.

“This resulted in a drastic fall in gold production compared to the prior year when the mine processed higher-grade ore from its Cam pits.

“The gold price maintained a growth trend throughout the year recording a 27 percent growth from the prior year’s average price of US$1 395 per ounce, to an average price of US$1 765/oz in the current year (2020), which counteracted the impact of lower production volumes,” said RioZim.

Revenue generated during the period was Z$3,1 billion in comparison to Z$577,1 million in the prior year. The exponential increase in revenue was a direct result of the depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar.

The Chronicle

Delays in the proposed unbundling of Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR) has rattled investors who are now reluctant to fund gold projects without proper knowledge of the timelines of the privatisation processes, an executive with the company has warned.

The delays have significantly contributed to the decrease in gold deliveries as investors are not happy with the continuous participation of FPR as a player.

Consequently, the miners are now taking their gold to alternative markets.

“Unbundling is still work in progress and as such it tends to affect investor participation in businesses wherein FPR is a player,” FPR general manager Fradreck Kunaka told Business Times.

Last year, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which is the parent company of FPR, announced plans to unbundle the company into two units—gold refining and printing and minting units.

RBZ said it would retain the printing and minting business but dispose of it 60% shareholding in the gold refining unit.

The big mining houses have been offered a 50% stake, while the small-scale miners and FPR gold buying agents were offered 7% and 3% respectively.

The proposal follows the model of Rand Refinery, South Africa’s biggest refinery, which is owned by the five largest gold miners—AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony, Sibanye Gold and DRDGOLD.

But, it appears there is no progress in the proposed unbundling of FPR, a move which has affected investors.  Early this year, RBZ governor, John Mangudya said the Covid-19 pandemic had stalled the process as board members of mining houses could not meet to complete the processes.

Gold deliveries fell 5% to record 1.38 tonnes in April 2021 from 1.46 tonnes recorded in the prior comparative period due to unfavourable mining policies and smuggling.

Kunaka said the authorities should complete the proposed unbundling process to attract investors in the gold sector.

“Without fresh capital injection, gold production may continue to decline or hold at current levels of 1.3 tonnes per month,” Kunaka said.

RBZ was expecting that the gold producers’ compliance levels in the trading of gold will significantly increase as they will be part of the decision-making process in gold trading.

The proposed privatisation of FPR came after some lobbying from some players in the mining business.

Gold miners want Zimbabwe to fully liberalise the marketing of gold so as to allow miners to sell their own production, a suggestion that Mangudya has publicly opposed, saying he feared it would worsen smuggling.

Among the country’s biggest gold producers are RioZim and Caledonia Mining.

FPR started refining gold in 1988, and at its peak producers from abroad sent in their gold for refining at its Msasa refinery.

However, FPR has not used most of its installed capacity to refine 50 tonnes of gold per year.

Mining experts said if the authorities would reduce punitive taxes (royalties), cost of importing cash and timeous payments the gold sector has the capacity to sustain the country’s economy.

The country is believed to be losing over US$1.7bn through gold leakages.

Business Times

Mining is an important sector in the country.

It is the biggest foreign currency earner and is one of the biggest employers. It also contributes a lot to community development as many towns have developed around mines while some companies are building roads, dams and other public infrastructure.

Experts say most of the minerals that the country is endowed with have not been mined yet. There are still thousands upon thousands of tonnes of gold, lithium, chrome and platinum; millions of carats of diamond, rare earths and so on that are still to be exploited.

This means that while mining has helped build this economy, it still has much more potential to contribute.
But one impediment, among a number, frustrating progress is speculative holding of concessions of many minerals by some companies.

The companies have, the Government has often said, sat on the assets for inordinately long periods. Since the companies are holding on to the concessions, they remain dead assets.

It is in that direction that, some two years ago, the Government announced a use-it-or-lose-it policy, which means that any company that continues to hold rights to a concession must begin mining; if they don’t, they lose the rights to other companies that are willing and able to start mining immediately.

It is according to that policy that the Government, as Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Winston Chitando told us this week, has repossessed as many as 80 concessions across the country.

“The use-it-or-lose-it policy has been implemented. We will have formal announcements in due course. But we have repossessed over 80 assets and we will do a formal update on that, and we will continue to do that (repossessing),” he said.

“We have always warned that the time was up for all those mining title holders who were holding onto the concessions for speculative tendencies at the expense of the country.

Under the ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’ mantra, those repossessed assets will be reallocated to potential investors who really want them for productive purpose in line with the National Development Strategy 1 agenda.”
We take the repossession, done in terms of the Mines and Minerals Act, as the first necessary step to addressing an unfortunate anomaly hindering the development of the relevant sector and the wider economy at large.

Now we ask that the Government moves speedily to allocate the assets to companies which have capacity to mine, but had been unable to do so because some were hoarding valuable ground for selfish interests.

It is our hope too that the new owners will hit the ground running and not behave like the former owners who were greedy and just sitting on value.

The reallocation will unleash the potential that the mining sector has. The country will be able to generate more foreign currency, more jobs would be created, more community development would be realised and so on.

In 2019, President Mnangagwa launched a mining industry strategic roadmap to build a US$12 billion sector by 2023. Under the road map, coal, chrome, diamond, iron and steel are envisaged to contribute US$1 billion to the economy.

The projected increase represents a 344 percent jump from US$2, 7 billion achieved in 2017. By 2030 the Government expects that the mining industry alone would be generating more than US$20 billion.

These targets would be met and surpassed if the assets that have been dead for many years, find new investors who will immediately work them for their profit and greater good of the economy.

The  Chronicle

AN ARTISANAL miner from Bulawayo is battling for life at Matobo Rural Hospital after sustaining serious injuries following a machete attack by his former colleagues over an unknown grudge.

The attack occurred last Sunday at around 11AM when the suspected machete-gang pounced at Nkomazana Mine, Matobo district, Matabeleland South province.

They attacked Mr Mthokozisi Tshuma (35) of Pumula South suburb with machetes and axes as they punched and kicked him.

Matabeleland South acting police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Thabani Mkhwananzi confirmed the attack, saying the suspects are still on the run.

Asst Insp Mkwananzi appealed to anyone with information on the suspects to report to the nearest police station.

He said Mr Tshuma was working under Mabhandadzi gold panning syndicate led by one Vusa Ncube before he left and joined Israel gold panning group in the same area.

Asst Insp Mkhwananzi also said Mr Tshuma’s move irked Ncube who connived with other mining group leaders forming a gang of more than 20 people to go and attack him at his workplace.

Upon arrival, the gang, armed with machetes and axes, confronted Mr Tshuma and asked him why he had left the syndicate and an altercation ensued.

He said one of the group members, Dumoluhle Sibanda, struck Mr Tshuma once on the head and cheek and he fell down as he bled profusely and crying in agony. The other panners joined the attack using axes.

Asst Insp Mkhwananzi said the gang struck Mr Tshuma all over his body and he sustained deep cuts on the head, left cheek and both legs.

“I can confirm that I received a report to that at Nkomazana mine in Matobo district at around 11AM more than 20 artisanal miners, led by group syndicates, stormed at the mining site armed with machetes and axes before they attacked Mr Tshuma all over his body leaving him lifeless,” said Asst Insp Mkhwananzi.

Mr Tshuma is admitted to Matobo Rural Hospital and is in critical condition.

“We urge members of the public to iron out disputes amicably and avoid the use of illegal weapons as the arm of the law will catch up with them,” said Asst Insp Mkhwananzi.

The Chronicle