KUVIMBA Mining House says it has made a strategic shift in its operations by commencing work on an open-pit section at its Great Dyke Investments (GDI) project in response to the global plunge in platinum group metals (PGM) prices.
KHM is among the country’s PGM miners who have come up with innovative strategies aimed at alleviating the effects of falling commodity prices.
The head of the PGMs cluster at KMH, Munashe Shava, yesterday said the open-pit venture was expected to generate enough revenue to fund the underground development over the course of its anticipated 10-year mining life span.
“If you look at the proximity of all the assets, GDI and even Mimosa, we are within a 30-kilometre radius, and any facilities that are available there, we want to actually be able to see if we can collaborate and use that instead of us developing a new power infrastructure,” said Shava, whose comments come at a time when Mimosa has been processing about half of its mining output at fellow PGM miner Unki.
On his part, Unki Mine chief executive officer, Colin Chibafa, stressed Anglo American Platinum’s broader focus on sustainability and innovation amid current industry challenges.
“Post-demerger, we will be one of four mines that Anglo American Platinum owns and we believe that our ore bodies in Zimbabwe are shallow.
“So, compared to the South African companies, we are more productive, hence a low-cost producer for the group,” said Chibafa.
In a related development, Unki is pioneering the use of hydrogen-powered trucks at its open-cast mine as it explores other ways of cutting operational costs and consequently enhancing commercial viability.
Mimosa Mining Company’s general manager, Stephen Ndiyamba, revealed that Mimosa had made a multifaceted response to the decline in global PGM prices.
The unexpected global dip in PGM prices not only led to depleted revenues, but in Mimosa’s case, also affected expansion initiatives with the company stopping the setting up of a new smelter which would have cost US$34 million.
Ndiyamba stated that Mimosa, which also embarked on a labour rationalisation programme and invested heavily in technology adoption, is also now considering lower-cost options to counter the stalled new smelter project, while also deliberating on potential concessions with the government.
“From November 2022 to now, we have seen a decline of about 40 percent in our PGM basket prices. This price downturn came in just after we had commissioned our plant optimisation project, which had a significant impact on our efficiencies on the process, which went up by about four percent,” said Ndiyamba.