Government is looking for an investor to resuscitate a gold refractory plant in Kwekwe.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
The plant, which has been idle since 2000, is owned by Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and is sitting on mine dumps of refractory gold ore worth over $78 million.
MMCZ acting general manager, Richard Chingodza said they carried out tests on the mine dumps and realised that if they restarted operations at the gold plant, they could win.
“We did a study, which showed us that we could get at least six to 10 grammes of gold from a tonne of gold ore from the mine dumps here. We have 97 220 tonnes of gold ore in the dumps, which translates to three tonnes of gold, nearly $78 million,” he said.
Chingodza said the study was done in collaboration with a top South African company.
MMCZ said it needs between $17 million to $20 million in capital injection to revive the plant, which used to employ 160 workers.
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Currently, 18 security guards are stationed to look after the plant’s assets.
“There is a lot of gold here, this is why we have this place under tight security so that we protect this ore. In Uganda, another company actually removed a roasting plant and managed to recover gold, which was enough to build a new plant altogether,” he said.
“The roasting plant used to service 23 mines in Zimbabwe some of them are in Gwanda and Shamva, but they were shut because the roasting process has low gold recoveries and was now becoming unprofitable.”
Chingodza said the Mines and Mining Development ministry floated tenders and 18 bidders are being screened to choose a company to revive roasting plant.
“If the plant is back on line the 23 mines will open and employ more people, the downstream effects will be more. The dumps are not going to be the only reason why we reopen this plant,” he said.
