HWANGE Colliery Company (HCC) has decommissioned its coke oven battery due to shortage of spare parts after reportedly spending more than $20 million in trying to resuscitate the state-of-the-art plant, Southern Eye has learnt. FRANKLIN MUDENDA OWN CORRESPONDENT
In a recent internal newsletter to employees, the colliery company said the 30-oven battery ceased to operate on a gradual basis in June this year after it became apparent that shortage of spares and other consumables was having a negative impact on coke production and other by-products.
Consideration is currently being made whether to repair the current battery or come up with a new structure as considerations will be centred on the amount of capital required and whether costs of repairs warrant a complete set of coke ovens.
In the newsletter, the metallurgical operations manager Bongani Ndlovu was quoted stating that the coke oven battery was decommissioned to pave way for specialist technical input as part of efforts of having improved coke deliveries in the market.
“It is not debatable that we need to continue producing quality coke in face of increased competition. After its cooling, technical inputs will be submitted by various experts to be assessed at colliery board level,” Ndlovu said.
He added that the latest development did not affect the organisation’s commitment to service local and foreign markets as an agreement was reached with South Mining, a local Chinese company to produce the commodity through a toll coking arrangement at an agreed fee.
South Mining is reported to have a similar but smaller coke oven battery which is situated adjacent to the colliery company.
Technical and operational staff from Hwange Colliery have already been deployed to South Mining as part of efforts to ensure that agreed quantities are being produced and emphasis placed on quality concerns.
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The current stocks of coke are reported to be sitting at around 6 000 tonnes and it is hoped their exhaustion may coincide wth the finalisation of negotiations with the Chinese-owned company.
Efforts to get a comment from the colliery spokesperson Burzil Dube were fruitless as he was not reachable.
The colliery coke oven battery was initially commissioned in 1967 and rebuilt 20 years later by a United Kingdom based company called Otto Simon Limited.
Coke is mainly used in smelting, foundry and metallurgical industries. Most of the product is exported to Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.
