SHURUGWI-BASED Anglo American Platinum Limited wholly-owned subsidiary, Unki Mine, has embarked on a $62 million smelter project that will see the company partially processing ore before sending it to South Africa for refining, the project manager has said.
BY STEPHEN CHADENGA
Smelter project manager Clifford Mutevhe said the platinum miner expected to commission the project mid-next year.
“The smelter project started on August 1, 2016 and we expect to commission the smelter on July 18, 2018,” he said during a media tour at the mine on Wednesday.
“The total budget for the project is $62 million and we expect the smelter to be fully operational in 2019.”
Mutevhe said electrical installations at the 8,5 megawatts smelter will commence in January.
He said the smelter was 70% complete.
“The planned progress was 72,46%, but to date we have recorded actual progress at 70,84%, which means we are doing well,” he said.
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Mutevhe commended the team at the smelter project for observing safety measures as 490 days and 510 494 hours have been completed without recording any injuries.
Zimbabwe has the world’s second-largest platinum reserves after South Africa, with the country calling on platinum miners to beneficiate the metal locally.
