Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

SINO Africa Huijin Holdings (Private) Limited has dragged Yibang Investments Private Limited to court on allegations of encroaching into its mining claim while posing life threatening dangers to their workers and general public due to dangerous mining methods.

Also cited as a respondent in the urgent chamber application is Minister of Mines Winstone Chitando.

An affidavit by Mark Rujuwa from Mtetwa and Nyambirai Legal Practitioners who is representing Sino Africa said if not stopped, the dispute will cause serious problems.

“The dispute between the parties is historical and if this court folds its hands, it will result in anarchy, despondency and brutality especially if one takes into account how there is rampant bloodshed in various gold fields surrounding the country,” he said.

“The parties all have some paperwork from the Ministry of Mines and their dispute is pending in respect of Yibang Investments claims Lawley 105 and 107 which encroach onto the applicant’s gold claim Lawley 95.

“Taking into account that the present ruling from the ministry favours the applicant, it will only be logical and reasonable to allow stay of any mining activities or investment thereof by Yibang Investment until the Supreme Court makes a ruling under SC 374/19 as well as after the resolution of the dispute by the minister,” Rujuwa said.

Rujuwa said it is compelling to have this matter done on an urgent basis because the applicant was aware of the return of Yibang Investments on the disputed claim around the 22nd of October 2019 when the fencing commenced.

“As an officer of the court, I am also persuaded that this matter is urgent since the first respondent seeks to benefit from wrongful and illegal acts which goes down to undermine the superiority the Supreme Court and general public policy considerations.

“The behaviour of the first is unwarranted, illegal and barbaric, hence they should be stopped to interfere with the operations at the applicant’s claims pending the finalisation of due process,” he said.

Sino Africa managing director, Huan Jiansheng said, “The first respondent has begun a robust project of fencing off a significant portion of their mining claim on the basis of a fraudulent illegal court order.

“This will cause harm and commercial urgency cannot be disputed. It is critical to note that the mining activities come in different types and allowing the respondent to use its methods which include deep shafts will jeopardise the land and the plans Sino Zimbabwe has.”

The case is pending.New Zimbabwe

A Mudzi gold panner is battling for life in hospital after he was shot on the shoulder by a fellow panner for demanding back his $50 he had lent the gunman to buy beer.

The shooter is now facing attempted murder charges and is on the run after police launched a manhunt for him.

Mashonaland East provincial police spokesperson, Tendai Mwanza confirmed the incident.

He said the incident happened when the suspect, Forbes Mungazi was recently drinking beer with Washington Renzva at the gold-rich Nyamuzizi Business Centre in Mudzi.

As the two continued imbibing, Mungazi reportedly ran out of cash leading to his borrowing $50 from Renzva on the promise that he would repay him later in the day.

However, an hour later, Renzva demanded his money back from Mungazi who then indicated that he was going to pay him with cash he left at his home.

The pair proceeded to Mungazi’s home where, on arrival, Renzva remained outside, whilst his colleague entered a bedroom under the pretext of collecting the money.

Instead, it is further said, Mungazi emerged armed with a pistol he used to shoot at Renzva once on the right shoulder.

Mungazi immediately fled the scene while Renzva was rushed to Makosa clinic where he was later transferred to Kotwa hospital.

A crime report was made at Makosa Police Station and the manhunt for Mungazi continues.

Meanwhile, a Dema man in Seke district has also been hospitalised after three unknown gunmen recently broke into his home at night and shot him.

Mwanza confirmed the incident and said the gunshot victim, Passmore Kusvakusva of Dema Phase 3 in Seke, was asleep when he heard some noise from people who were breaking into his home.

He woke up and rushed towards the direction of the noise to be confronted by the suspects.

One of the intruders drew a pistol and fired at him once.

Kusvakusva was hit on the left side of the chest and fell down. The trio fled the scene with nothing stolen.

A neighbour who had heard the gunshots rushed to the scene to find Kusvakusva bleeding and lying helplessly on the floor.

He was later rushed to Chitungwiza hospital before a police report was made.

Mwanza said no arrests has been made yet_New Zimbabwe

BASELESS and negative reports on the goings-on in the Chiadzwa diamond operations result in the precious gems fetching so little on the international market, Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) board chairperson has said.

Only recently, the United States barred Zimbabwe’s diamonds from entering Washington after claims that they were produced with forced labour. Apparently, forced labour has never been an issue at Chiadzwa and other diamond mining areas around the country.

In his opening remarks during an all stakeholders diamond indaba held in Mutare on Wednesday, ZCDC board chairperson Mr Killian Ukama said negative reports gave the impression that the country was desperate for diamond buyers and ended up getting low prices for the precious gems.

“It is important that we remind each other that all the lies that are peddled on international communication channels result in our produce fetching less on the international market.

“We are in this together and if we cannot be responsible in the way we disseminate information at least let us be patriotic. The situation that obtains because of negative publicity is that buyers get the impression that Zimbabwe is desperate for market and in the end they negotiate to the last price,” he said.

In an effort aimed at sourcing lucrative markets for the precious gems, ZCDC last year launched an online bidding platform to allow potential international buyers to buy Zimbabwe’s gems.

The ZCDC upped its efforts to market its produce since last year when it launched an online platform that is meant to perform better than manual diamond bidding.

At its inception, Mr Ukama said the platform allowed the country’s diamond sector to follow international best practices.

“It allows us to connect with many more buyers who can register from anywhere in the world. The system allows comprehensive data analytics regarding the buyers and their preferences. ZCDC will also invest in exploration and evaluation to establish resource confidence.”_The Manica Post

ZESA Holdings yesterday said it is implementing prolonged load shedding following a technical fault at Hwange Power Station.

The power utility said it was moving to Stage 2 load shedding that has previously seen customers going for up to 18 hours per day without electricity. 

Before the latest technical fault at Hwange Power Station, power generated locally and imports from South Africa and Mozambique saw customers enjoying longer hours with power.

In a statement yesterday, the power utility said increased load shedding would persist until the fault is rectified. 

“Zesa Holdings would like to advise its valued customers countrywide that there was a technical fault at Hwange Power Station this afternoon Monday 11 November 2019, resulting in an increase in load shedding outside the publicised schedule. 

“Load shedding is now being implemented at Stage 2 until the fault at Hwange has been rectified,” reads the statement.

According to Zesa, Stage 1 load shedding happens to the first group of customers as listed on its schedule and these are switched off as the power shortfall will be within planned limits.

In the event that the power shortfall increases beyond the planned limits, load shedding will move to Stage 2. 

Zesa said while it is importing electricity to augment national supplies, power would remain constrained. 

“While all efforts are being made to improve the power supply availability through imports, the supply situation remains fragile. 

“Customers are advised to use the available power very sparingly and will be updated as the situation improves. The inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted,” it said.

The Hwange Power Station has outlived its lifespan resulting in it having consistent breakdowns.

The country’s power shortage is worsened by subdued electricity generation at the Kariba Hydro Power Station due to poor rains in the 2018/19 rainy season.

The Government is importing power from South Africa and Mozambique to address the suppressed electricity generation. 

The Government has also poured resources for the rehabilitation of Hwange unit 7 and 8 as it strives to improve the country’s electricity generation which is key in its bid to attain an upper-middle-income status by 2030_The Chronicle

CEMENT producer PPC’s shares slumped more than a fifth in early trade last Thursday after the company said interim earnings could fall more than 80% because of low demand for its products in SA and shortage of foreign currency in Zimbabwe.

This shines the spotlight on the challenges that PPC’s new CEO Roland van Wijnen, who took over six weeks ago, will grapple with in turning around SA’s largest cement maker.

PPC’s shares hit a 53-week low after falling 21.28% in early trade. But the stock recovered to close 12.31% down at R3.42, the largest one-day decline since March 2002. Since the beginning of 2019 the stock has shed more than 42% of its value.

The company’s disappointing performance comes amid a surge in imports, lack of infrastructure investment, mooted price increases in Southern Africa and weak consumer demand. PPC must also make provision for carbon tax, which came into effect on June 1 2019. PPC has said that the effect of carbon tax would be R100m-R120m for cement and lime per year. PPC partially attributed the expected fall in earnings to inflation in Zimbabwe exceeding 150% in the six months to end September.

Mish-al Emeran, an equity analyst at Electus Fund Managers said though PPC had said that the Zimbabwe operation was self-funding, PPC Zimbabwe’s US$21m (R310m) debt due to PPC SA posed a balance-sheet risk.

PPC owns 70% of PPC Zimbabwe, which includes a clinker manufacturing operation at Colleen Bawn and two milling plans in Bulawayo.

PPC Zimbabwe is that country’s largest cement manufacturer. The Zimbabwean operations have a total capacity of 1.4-million tons a year. PPC said in a trading statement that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) in Zimbabwe was expected to fall by 40%-45% from the prior period’s R352m. “PPC has been closely monitoring the economic situation in Zimbabwe and though the business is self-sufficient, the Zimbabwe Public Accountants and Auditors Board (PAAB) announced that Zimbabwe is a hyperinflation economy,” PPC said in a trading statement.

It said the rapid increase in inflation to more than 150% at the end of September and lack of access to foreign currency supported PAAB’s assertion about hyperinflation. PPC said other than the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, other drivers of the decline in ebitda were the “difficult trading conditions” in SA and one-off restructuring costs amounting to R85m.

PPC has a presence in SA, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

PPC said the group’s ebitda was expected to fall by 15%-20%, compared to the ebitda of R1.03bn in the six months to September 2018. Headline earnings per share were expected to decrease by  65%-85% from the prior period’s 21c. —  Business Day

The gold sub-sector lost 20 percent of potential output due to intermittent power supply during the course of the year despite mining companies making an advance payment to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) in foreign currency.

This came out In the State of the Mining Sector Survey 2019 released today.

Earlier in the year, Miners went into a contractual agreement with ZESA to secure constant power supply but for the power, utility has failed to meet its side of the bargain aecting gold production.

“All gold producer respondents indicated that the power outages resulted in output losses with the majority (70%) having lost more than 20% of potential output while the remainder (30%) lost between 10% and 20% of potential output,” the report reads.

It further states that all gold producer respondents (100%) indicated that they were facing regular and prolonged power outages with about 80% of the respondents indicating that they were facing power outages exceeding 6 hrs/ day, while 20% said they were facing power disruptions of 0 to 6 hrs/per day.

“All gold producer respondents indicated that they signed contracts with ZESA for dedicated power. All gold producer respondents also revealed that they were paying a revised tariff of USc9.86/ KWh in advance in foreign currency,” said the report.

Zimbabwe is targeting 40 tons output of the precious stone following a remarkable 33.2 tons delivery in 2018 which surpassed the 30 tons target.

However, officials have already conceded the 2019 target won’t be reachable as a cocktail of challenges include power shortages continue to dampen productivity.

“We have several issues like power outages and complaints from miners, especially small scale miners, that we never dealt with diligently and I think that contributed to the drastic fall in gold production,”

Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Polite Kambamura was quoted this week. Zimbabwe has undergone serious electricity shortages since the beginning of the year owing to the drought that affected hydropower generation at Kariba dam.

This has led to 16-hour long power cuts across the country affecting the entire economy. Major gold producers are feeling the pinch with Rio Zim and Caledonia in their half-year output for 2019 shedding 8 percent and 3.2 percent of production respectively on account of energy constraints.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has set an ambitious target to produce 100 tons of gold annually in 2023_263 Chat

– Paramount Chief Marange has blasted the government-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) of imposing corporate social responsibility programmes on the community who continue to live in abject poverty despite sitting on top of the precious stones.

Speaking to delegates at the annual all stakeholders Diamond Indaba held in Mutare yesterday, Chief Marange accused ZCDC of failing to provide tangible employment opportunities for locals as well as imposing corporate social responsibility programs on the community.

“As a community, we didn’t know about diamonds until they were found in our area but we are still living in poverty, we are suffering and we hope that the board will hear our pleas that we have continuously expressed.

“We have a hospital build as long back as 1940 and our expectation was that this would be upgraded because diamonds were found in our backyard, yet that clinic as we speak does not have toilets.

“We do not have access to clean water, we have no dams and boreholes, people are struggling to make ends meet yet diamonds are being extracted right under our nose by people employed from other areas yet our children are unemployed,” he said.

Manicaland Minister of State Dr. Ellen Gwaradzimba also acknowledged the concerns of Chief Marange, saying it was a paradox that villagers lived in squalid conditions in the midst of plenty.

“For some issues brought in by the community, I have had discussions with them on the issue of employment, young people are desperate for employment and we urge ZCDC to practice good recruitment practices.

“In this era of devolution, we are saying locals should benet not that we are excluding the nation but we expect local people to be employed for jobs that are not technical,” said Gwaradzimba.

Gwaradzimba urged ZCDC to address environmental legacy issues inherited from former mining
companies that were posing a threat to both humans and livestock.

“If communities are suffering and livestock is perishing due to effects of mercury and cyanide, and
water is contaminated in rivers by from mining activities without consummate benet, this shows a lack
of leadership and good governance,” said Gwaradzimba.

“ARDA Transau has been a thorny issue in my office people are threatening to come and do some press-ups at my offices and I think the model of relocation did not provide for the sustenance of those people,” she added_263 Chat