HWANGE COLLIERY COMPANY is set to receive the first batch of mining equipment recently bought from China as it seeks to increase production output which in the past, had been dogged by constant breakdown of machinery.
Own Correspondent
In an interview, company spokesperson, Burzil Dube said 100-tonne trucks will be delivered before the end of this week as they had already been cleared by regulatory authorities at the Beitbridge border post.
The company recently bought mining equipment worth $12 million from Sany Heavy Equipment Corporation, a Chinese company. “To be more precise, two dump (100-tonne) trucks will be at the mine within the next two days while the rest will be shipped in phases, as we seek to ramp up our production capacity which has in the past been affected by ageing equipment,” Dube said.
“This in turn had a negative impact on the company’s revenue base. ” The machinery includes 10 dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 55 and 100 tonnes respectively, two excavators and a 55-tonne crane. The company is also in the process of acquiring other mining support equipment such as drills, so that it operates at full capacity to meet both domestic and foreign demand.
Production at the mine in the past few years has been affected by equipment constraints and inefficiencies, which the company said had also a ripple effect on payment of salaries to its workers.
Employees are currently owed four months’ salaries and efforts are currently underway to clear the backlog, Dube said. The company is expected to produce an average of 400 000 tonnes per month at full capacity, but this has been reduced to more than half due to equipment constraints.
