Pan Africa focused and AIM listed resources firm, Mwana Africa has said that limited production has resumed at its flagship Freda Rebecca gold mine in Zimbabwe.
Mwana Africa was forced to briefly stop production following a leach tank which exploded and collapsed on top of another last week. Mwana Africa owns about 85 percent in Freda Rebecca.
Short term productivity is expected to be affected by the brief stoppage although the company is expecting full capacity production at the mine to resume in March following this week’s resumption of limited production.
“Management expects to restore 50 percent of production levels by the end of February and to maintain this level through March and at present are targeting restoration of full production by the end of March,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“It is expected that the incident will in the short term affect production levels and in the medium term affect gold recovery. Management guidance for gold production for the 12 months ending March 2013 is set at 63,000oz.”
Four of the employees who were injured and hospitalised following the accident are now reportedly back at work while the fifth is said to have sustained a broken ankle.
The Freda Rebecca gold mine is currently operating at an annualised production rate of 72 000 ounces per year. It produced 18 350 ounces of gold in the third quarter to the end of September last year. However, the mine’s output in the fourth quarter to the end of December skidded by 10 percent to 16 506 ounces.
Kalaa Mpinga, chief executive officer of Mwana Africa said: “We express our appreciation of the work done by local management in collaboration with government authorities at the national and local level in dealing quickly and efficiently with the situation.”
In 2012, Zimbabwe produced 14,742 tonnes of gold, a significant 13.5 percent increase from the previous year’s production. The country pocketed $782, 75 million from gold revenue, witch gold earnings also firming up by 18.9 percent on the back of a rise in gold prices on international markets.
An economic analyst, Johannes Kwangwari has said that mining is a crucial sector for Zimbabwe’s economy, adding that the country’s gold and platinum mining were lucrative for existing and prospective companies.
“Zimbabwe has low production and operational costs,” he said. Despite fears over the indigenisation policy, most of the mining companies in Zimbabwe are maintaining their investments while others such as Zimplats and Mimosa are keen to expand operations and ramp up output.
There are several gold mining companies in Zimbabwe and these include Caledonia Mining Corporation as well as New Dawn and RioZim’s Renco gold mine.
