Dallaglio spells out Eureka mine strategy
Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister, Polite Kambamura, recently toured Eureka Gold Mine in Guruve district to ascertain, first hand, the progress made towards reopening of the mine. The mine, which is part of Dallaglio Investments (DI) (Pvt) Limited, is currently under construction with production expected to start in the third quarter of 2021. Once in operation, the mine looks set to catapult Dallaglio into becoming the country’s largest gold producer. Our Business Reporter, Ishemunyoro Chingwere (IC), took advantage of the tour to engage the mine management on progress made in the construction work as well as future plans. Dallaglio chief executive officer, Mr Marc Nicolle and James Beare — the managing director of Delta Gold, a subsidiary of Dallaglio, spoke on behalf of mine management. The following are excerpts of the interview.
IC: What’s the latest on progress made in terms of reconstructing this mine?
DI: We were 44 percent complete as at the end of August. Work done to date mainly focus on engineering, procurement and adjudicating packages that have been defined through engineering. We are in the early stages of ramping up through the procurement.
We then have to move on from that to logistics and delivery. After the goods are delivered on site, they need to be constructed and thus the construction activities you have seen today.
That construction will end and then we will start cold commissioning. Cold commissioning proves that things are being constructed correctly, then we move into hot commissioning. So we have a healthy way to go and the progress despite Covid-19 has been good.
IC: Cold commissioning, when can we expect that to be done?
DI: Cold commissioning and hot commissioning will happen at various stages for different areas of the plant, but that will be between quarter two and quarter three next year.
IC: You said you have gone 44 percent, what constitute the remaining work?
DI: You would have seen during the site visit that we have just broken ground and we are above ground on the civil earth works for the mills.
We want to have that done and ready to receive the mills later in the year when they arrive from South Africa. Once those mills are on, we then need to build structures around them, we need to link the mills to the various equipment, piping and conveyor belting.
IC: You told the Deputy Minister that the mine has potential to produce gold worth a billion dollars in five years, expand on that.
DI: The exploration we have done so far covers that initial period of open pit work. There is some promising work to be done during that operating five-year period to further confirm what’s underground which will be accessible through an underground shaft.
IC: But the initial five years — for the open pit — can you mine out a billion dollars worth of gold?
DI: That’s correct. The life of the mine in the initial open pit is about a billion dollars. The exploration we have done seems to indicate that the grade of gold per tonne of ore is higher than it is in the open pit area. We hope, in the meantime and can confirm that we will deliver a high grade feed to the plant than what we are currently forecasting in the first phase of operation.
IC: How much have you invested in this project so far?
DI: That will be in the low of US$20 million and that includes the purchase price (which is about US$6 million). On the corporate social responsibility (CSR), the key thing to mention is that we have to get this project to commissioning and completion.
We have been involved in helping the community where we made some donations to help the Guruve District Hospital and the police. But once operations start, we have to get some much bigger CSR initiatives; most of them being sustainable commercial activities.
IC: What economic benefits will the mine bring to this area?
DI: Jobs will be created indirectly through commerce to the Guruve area. It’s going to have a natural effect in uplifting the general standards of living in the area. On top of that, there is going to be a noticeable difference in things like the improvement of schools, clinics and roads. We will employ over 400 people, then you will have your mining contractor at about 300 and then there’s going to be different consultants.
IC: How about at this current stage of construction?
DI: Right now we have about 225 jobs directly with about 100 to 150 indirectly which have already been created.
IC: This kind of huge investment obviously needs Government buy in, how best will you sum up your relationship with the Government?
DI: We certainly have got their ear. If we have issues, we are able to take them to the Government straight. Clearly, the Government has an interest in this project, I think it’s a good supportive relationship.–herald.l.zw
