Despite weakened gold and nickel commodity prices, diversified mining company Mwana Africa is aiming to increase productivity by lowering costs.

Mwana Africa CEO Kalaa Mpinga tells Mining Weekly that the company has been on a cost-cutting drive for three years, with company overheads having been reduced from $8.5-million in 2013 to $6.45-million in 2014.

“We have seen half-year revenues of $85-million and a half-year profit of $7.7-million in the first six months of fiscal 2015,” he says.

Mwana reported virtually unchanged gold output of 58 714 oz from its Freda Rebecca gold mine, in Zimbabwe, during fiscal 2015. This is despite the slightly lower mill head grade.

There were certain challenges during the financial year, including a low-quality replacement carbon batch in the third quarter, which resulted in gold being lost through fine carbon and being passed on to tailings.

The mine’s cash costs for the fourth quarter of the financial year were $1 078/oz against the third quarter’s $1 118/oz as gold volumes increased quarter-on-quarter.

Bindura Nickel Corporation

Mpinga notes that one of biggest challenges the company faced this year was raising enough capital to restart its Bindura Nickel Corporation’s nickel smelter and refinery, in Zimbabwe.

“We have been successful in rasing a $20- million bond in the Zimbawe market for the project and our target is to complete the smelter before the end of the year,” he notes.

He adds that load-shedding in South Africa has been a major challenge in restarting the smelter, as some of the refactory bricks used are manufactured in South Africa and their production is affected by load-shedding.

“This will not affect the time schedule of the plant,” he states, adding that this is the third time that the Bindura furnace is being rebuilt.

Mining Weekly reported in February that most of the key members of the project team were in place, with the manufacturing of key components for the electrostatic precipitator (ESP) at various stages.

The ductings from the converters to the ESP mixing chamber and the ESP inlet and outlet transition pieces were delivered in February, Mwana said in a quarterly update to shareholders on exploration and production activities.

The removal of the old feed system has been completed and the furnace to the ESP ducting has also been removed to prepare for the installation of new units.

Software programming for the Hatch furnace controller will start in the fourth quarter.

“We believe that the Bindura smelter has a strategic role to play, in the beneficiation of not only our own concentrate but also other companies’ material across the region,” Mpinga says.

He adds that the company looks forward to realising its objective of bringing its smelter back on line and ultimately reaching nameplate capacity of 14 000 tonnes of LME-grade nickel over the next three years.

Mpinga notes that investors can rest assured that the company can operate effectively in the various countries where it is currently active.

“In addition to the progress made in Zimbabwe, we developed a three-million-ounce gold resource in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” he says.