The current power shortages which are being experienced throughout the country are threatening to reduce operational efficiency at Dorowa Mine, 263Chat has learnt.
The mine, in the Manicaland Province and owned by Chemplex Corporation, is the only phosphate mine in Zimbabwe and is currently planning to diversify into magnetite production to boost its revenue base while targeting 26 million tonnes of iron, the ore that contains the mineral magnetite.
Dorowa Minerals general manager Charles Mangadze said the target can be futile if the current power outages persist despite them having reached a deal with the power utility, ZESA.
“Currently we are losing nine to 10 hours of production every day (due to power outages). We recently signed a contract with ZESA to pay (for electricity) in forex and they promised us that we will be ring-fenced but we are still losing power but not as much as domestic consumers,” he said.
“We are looking at other sources (of electricity), our plant is a 4- megawatt plant, and right now we have got proposals for a solar plant that we are looking at.”
He added that the company requires about 4 000 to 5 000 litres of fuel per day for operations.
Mangadze said they have been facing a large demand, mainly from Mozambican coal mines and they need about US$2 million to expand in order to meet that demand
“Currently, we are producing about 2 000 tonnes per month which are a far from satisfying the demand. Therefore, we want to expand our plant so that we can produce up to 8 000 tonnes per month. Our current customers have come to us wanting magnetite of around 12 000 tonnes per month,” he said.
Meanwhile, Industry and Commerce Minister, Mangaliso Ndlovu said the government has to keep channelling resources to companies like Dorowa in an effort to capacitate them.
In 2016, the government extended a loan to the mine which saw the capacity utilisation move from 10 to 60 percent in three years.
