Published by the government of Zimbabwe
3 July 2009
Harare — MINING giant Mwana Africa will soon resume operations at Freda Rebecca gold mine following an improvement in Zimbabwe's economic environment, Mwana Africa's chief executive Mr Kalaa Mpinga has said.
He added that that the mining group was also considering resuming operations at Bindura Nickel Corporation and restarting development of the Hunters Road project.
"This has been a challenging year for Mwana Africa as we have fought to protect our strategic investments and the foundations of our pan-African, multi-commodity strategy.
"With the improvement in operating conditions in Zimbabwe, we will shortly resume operations at Freda Rebecca and are currently looking at options to resume operations at BNC including the potential to restart development of our promising Hunters Road project," he said.
Mr Mpinga's comments were contained in the mining group's audited results for the year to March 31 2009 that were posted on the company's website.
The mining giant also disclosed that the first phase of the Freda Rebecca gold mine's restart programme, funded from existing cash resources, was scheduled for completion at the end of September this year.
Mwana is targeting annualised production of 50 000 ounces of gold by the end of 2010 from the second phase of the programme.
The mining group recorded a loss for the year of US$37,9 million before impairment and tax due principally to weak trading conditions at BNC.
Bindura, which was placed under care and maintenance last year, recorded a drastic fall in sales volume to 1 881 tonnes from 4 152 tonnes previously year.
The company said the slump in sales volumes was a result of the declining nickel prices and low production levels among others.
"The corporation's cash flows were adversely affected by a number of factors including declining nickel prices, low production levels, unfavourable exchange rates and periodic power outages," said the company.
The average nickel prices for the financial year under review had slumped to US$7,43 per pound down from US$14,68 per pound in the previous year.
Average monthly prices fell dramatically from a high of US$13,04 at the beginning of the financial year to about US$4,40 in March 2009.
Poor prices for the commodity ultimately led to the group incurring a loss in profit before tax of US$54,3 million.
Due to the 55 percent reduction in volumes, the company's turnover was lower than that of the prior year.
Turnover from own nickel decreased by 78 percent, mainly because of the reduction in both sales and volumes.
"However, the downward trend in nickel prices, that was in place for most of the year in 2008, has started to reverse.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
