Eureka looks to diesel as a contingency

Eureka Gold Mine is looking at utilising diesel power as a contingency measure in the face of relatively unreliable power supply that has dogged Southern Africa.

The mine, which is currently under construction, having had reconstruction work commissioned by President Mnangagwa, anchors its plans on power utility Zesa.

Although Zimbabwe currently has no power shortages after several Government interventions, which includes upscaling imports, industry has been forced to have alternatives to turn to in the event of outages.

Addressing journalists at Eureka Gold Mine in Guruve District on Wednesday, Dallaglio Investments (Pvt) Limited chief executive officer, Marc Nicolle, said the miner was anchoring its plans on Zesa power but plans were afoot to factor in diesel.

The address by Nicolle was done on the occasion of a mine tour by Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Polite Kambamura.

Deputy Minister Kambamura was on a mission to ascertain the progress made so far towards restarting production at the mine.

Dallaglio is the parent company that owns Eureka and Peerless Pickstone Gold Mine in Chegutu District.

“We are taking advantage of Zesa provision, we need to run a power cable that is 27 kilometers away,” said Nicolle.

“That process with Zesa is ongoing, in addition to that we all acknowledge that Zesa is not going to be a hundred percent reliable and that’s and that’s a regional issue not just for Zesa.

“So we are putting in place evaluations of diesel generators to back up that supply together with a battery system to ensure a quick change over from Zesa to diesel and back again,” he said.

Nicolle further explained that the diesel plan is phase one of the power contingency measures.

It is against this background that the company is exploring a phase two plan that will incorporate the installation of a solar power plant.

The plans on solar are also in sync with Government’s power strategy that is aimed at upscaling renewable and cleaner energy.

Eureka, which is currently under construction, is expected to get into production in the third quarter of next year.

The initial projected gold output is 140 kgs per month which is expected to grow to 200 kilograms per month with further investment.

Government expects mining sector exports to grow from US$2,7 Billion in 2017 to US$12 Billion by 2023.

Of that chunk, gold is expected to contribute US$4 billion.-ebusinessweekly