Shamva Gold Mine open pit project preps well underway – NewZimbabwe.com

By Mary Taruvinga

KUVIMBA Mining House (KMH) says preparations for its Shamva Gold Mine open pit project, which is expected to produce 2, 6 tonnes of gold annually, is at an advanced stage.

The Shamva Hill open pit, according to Shamva Gold Mine General Manager, Gift Mapakame, has an expected life of mine of 14 years.

As part of the huge expansion project, in which a US$126 million capital investment is required, the company’s processing plant is also expected to be up and running in two years’ time.

“We are expecting to invest a total US$126 million in peak funding for the Shamva Hill open pit project,” he told journalists at a recent media tour.

“This is quite a big project. That extensive capital input, a significant proportion of it is going into developing a 220 000 tonnes per month processing facility together with a tailing storage plant.

“Part of that capital investment will also be channelled towards the pre-production phases required for the open pit. The project itself has an expected life of mine of 14 years, producing an annual gold production of 2, 6 tonnes per year,” he said.

The mine, which is Zimbabwe’s biggest gold producer has been processing 45 000 tonnes annually, and producing about 670 kg of gold from its underground operations since its revitalisation in 2020.

This year, the Shamva Gold Mine is targeting to produce 717kgs of gold.

Mapakame said shareholders are guaranteed to have good returns.

“Just by looking at the differences in operations methodology, we expect the open pit to be much cheaper to run, thereby generating more profitability and more value for our stakeholders.”

Mapakame said the project has an expected payback period of 3,2 years from the start.

“This is a project that we are working on. At this juncture, we are now at the risk evaluation stage. We are looking at the gaps that have been left by the work that we have already done and at the same time we are now probing EPC to see if we can have partners to start developing the project.

“So this is the future of Shamva Gold mine. Any project or any entity works with a future in hand and this is the future we are taking Shamva gold mine to,” he said.

According to Mapakame, the time from construction to production is about two years depending on their success in terms of securing a development partner.

“We are looking at about a year and a half to start mine construction or preliminary capital activity on this project,” he said.

“The capacity of the mine that we are going to build is about 200 000 tonnes per month so the plant is going to be there in two years.”

Before the KMH takeover, Shamva had halted operations as it struggled to raise capital to remain in business, despite having one of the largest untapped resources in the industry.

KMH, in its quest to rescue mothballed mines, has acquired several entities such as Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC); Shamva, Sandawana; Tiger and Club; Globe and Phoenix; Great Dyke Investments (GDI) in Darwendale; and Zimbabwe Alloys (ZimAlloys) and Freda Rebecca Gold Mine in Bindura where ore from Shamva is currently being processed among others.