Hwange Colliery Company Limited has invested about US$60 million into its underground coal mining project, which is expected to drive the company's turnaround strategy.
The investment is part of the joint venture between HCCL and Zhongjin Investments and is designed to unlock the underground potential of Zimbabwe's oldest colliery operation.
The project will also support the resuscitation of HCCL's coke oven battery, which will produce 18 000 tonnes of coke per annum.
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The colliery company, which was placed under administration more than two years ago, is on a growth trajectory, riding on an efficient Business Improvement Plan adopted by the new management.
Financial and operational challenges left the company on the brink of collapse before the Government took a strategic decision to put it into administration.
In a record two years, the company has been successfully turned around, producing over four million tonnes of coal annually.
HCCL is key to Zimbabwe's economy as a major coal producer crucial for national energy security and industrial development, supplying the Hwange Power Station, the country's biggest main power producer.
It also provides coking coal for other key industrial operations, including an emerging steel making giant Manhize, while it creates numerous jobs and drives economic activity around Hwange and produces products for the export markets.
Engineer Akim Mutiti, the company's underground mining consultant, speaking during a tour of the mine by Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando, said to date, two shafts had been drilled, each a kilometer deep, at an inclination of 12 degrees.
"Coal is intersected at one kilometre from here and at that point, the coal is 240 meters below the surface. At the bottom of the shafts, there are development tunnels. We have developed almost a kilometre from the bottom of the shaft and we are continuing development until we get to almost 6 kilometres," he said.
Eng Mutiti said as the underground mine project progressed, the company was already in production, churning out 600 000 tonnes per annum.
"But next year, we will increase to 2,5 million tonnes and the following year, it will be 3 million tonnes of coal per annum," he said.
Eng Mutiti added that next year, the company will introduce high-tech mining equipment that will produce approximately 210 000 tonnes per annum from one mining area.
"The good thing about this mining method is that the extraction is very good at around 90 percent of extraction and we will also be mining the whole 10-metre seam that we have in Hwange and we will be separating coking coal and coal right from source.
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"We will be having two conveyor belts coming from the mine, bringing the coal out to the surface. From there, the coal will be conveyed by a conveyor belt that is currently under construction to a coal washing plant, where the coal will be washed.
"After the washing plant, the coal will be delivered to the coke ovens, where the coal will be converted from coal into coke," he said.
Eng Mutiti noted that during that process, the coke oven gases produced will be used to fire a power station that the company will be constructing.
The production capacity of that power station is 120 megawatts. Over and above that, we are also going to build two generating units producing 150 megawatts each.
The combined production of the power station will be 420 megawatts
"The project for the coke ovens will take about two to three years from now and for the power plant, about three to five years from now.
Minister Chitando said the joint venture was put in place to unlock the underground potential for HCCL and will be the biggest underground mine in Zimbabwe.
"Initially, this is supporting the resuscitation of the Hwange Colliery coke oven battery, which will be producing 18 000 tonnes of coke per annum. The joint venture company between Hwange and the partner is a starting foundation of a staggering 1,8 million tonnes of coke per annum. This is in fulfilment of His Excellency's vision of growing the economy by 2030," he said.
