Hwange quarterly coal output hits a million tonnes

Hwange Colliery Company in its first quarter of 2023 hit a million tonnes of coal as the company continues to benefit from its recapitalization drive.

Hwange Colliery company secretary Chrispen Ncube in a trading update said total coal mined for the year-to-date increased by 92,73 percent compared to same period last year.

“Production volumes of Hwange Power Station (HPS) coal increased to 494 820 tonnes in comparison to 398 728 tonnes in the same period in 2022 and productions volumes of Hwange Coking Coal (HCC) and Hwange Industrial Coal (HIC) increased to 773 771 tonnes in comparison to 259 489 tonnes in the same period in 2022,” he said.

Hwange Colliery sold 1 064 014 tonnes of coal compared to same period last year tonnage of 683 896.

According to Ncube, “HPS sales volumes increased to 414 428 tonnes compared to 360 698 tonnes for the same period in 2022, whilst HCC and HIC sales volumes also increased to 649 585 tonnes compared to 323 198 for the same period in 2022.”

Hwange Colliery said it entered into an equipment financing deal, in which it will receive equipment worth US$15 million in the next two years.

Company administrator Munashe Shava said, “As a part of efforts to increase production, the Company entered into an equipment mobilisation and coal offtake agreement through which it will receive new underground mining equipment valued at US$15 million over a period of two years.”

In the period to December 31, 2022, a consignment of the equipment worth US$6 million was received and commissioned into operation and this is expected to increase underground production to 50,000 tonnes by mid-2023.

“The Company has also engaged new mining contractors to open three new opencast pits to guarantee coking coal annual production of 772,000 tonnes per year,” Mr. Shava added.

On the coal processing front, Hwange acquired two new washing plants that will be commissioned during the second half of 2023 and the washing plants will be located near the mining areas to reduce hauling and processing costs.

According to the administrator, “The development of the Option Area has started with the boxcut and mining of a portal that will lead to the underground mine and this new mine will augment the production of coking coal from the current 3 Main underground mines.”

With the projections of the project saying that coal production from the Option Area will begin in 2024.

The administrator added that, “Deliveries into the power station were, however, negatively affected by challenges at the power station and limited stock holding space at the same.

“Underground mine coal production declined by 24 percent compared to the previous year. This was mainly due to delays in commissioning the new underground mining equipment due to COVID-19 restrictions that affected the movement of the engineers from the Original Equipment Manufacturers.”

Hwange believes it has a thrust in 2023 to grow its market share of coking coal sales in neighbouring countries and advanced plans to develop dedicated solutions for the delivery of coking coal and coke products in the region are underway.-ebusinessweekly