MAJOR OPPORTUNITIES Hwange’s three new mining concessions have coal deposits in excess of 1-billion ton of coal and a prevalence of coal-bed methane gas
Zimbabwe coal producer Hwange Colliery Company (HCC) was recently awarded the Western Areas, Lubimbi East and Lubimbi West mining concessions by the Zimbabwe government through the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.
The company says these three areas have coal deposits in excess of one-billion tons and a prevalence of coal-bed methane gas.
“The estimated life-of-mine for HCC will now be more than 50 years,” the company states.
The company says these reserves can be extracted either through opencast or underground mining methods and that the coal deposits consist of themal and coking coal.
“We expect to start the exploration and mine development of these concessions in the coming months,” HCC comments.
The company explains that the awarding of these concessions by government is in line with HCC’s growth strategies in terms of diversification and demonstrates recognition by government of the company’s recapitalisation and turnaround initiatives.
“This is a major boost to HCC’s balance sheet and credit worthiness and will ensure positive growth in the fortunes of the company. The company has been pursuing the Western Areas coalfields concession for the past decade as it has lucrative coal deposits in the north-western parts of Zimbabwe.
“A competent person’s report by an independent consultant estimated a resource of 750-million tons in Western Areas alone, which is split evenly between coking coal and thermal coal.”
The company says it will soon be going into the market to look for suitable partners and financiers to develop these three mining concessions.