RioZim seeks stable power supply

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RIOZIM will this year prioritise securing a stable power supply across all its operations to ensure consistent plant throughput.
In a trading update for the first quarter of 2023, company secretary Tawanda Chiurayi bemoaned the increasing power outages elongating downtime.
“Power supply challenges worsened during the period under review due to load shedding and unstable power infrastructure. The group continues to invest in alternative power supply albeit coming at a higher cost of production.”
The group has a 178MW solar plant and the 2 800MW Sengwa Power Station on cards, but progress has so far been frustrated by the elusive search for suitable funding partners.
For the period under review, Chiurayi said the group’s gold business recorded a bit of movement in terms of volumes than prior periods.
“Production increased by 92 percent from the comparative prior year’s first quarter. This was on the back of the Biological Oxidation (BIOX) plant that came into operation in Q2 2022, which has enabled the mine to upscale production volumes.

“Despite the notable improvement in production from the prior year, production from the BIOX plant is currently operating below nameplate plant capacity and the focus in the current year is to continue upscaling production to the full capacity of the plant,” he said.
However, Dalny Mine operated under full care and maintenance throughout the quarter, forcing the mine to embark on small-scale mining operations to reduce the cash flow impact of the fixed care and maintenance costs. Production is expected from the second quarter.
As for Renco Mine, production fell by two percent from the same period in the prior year due to power supply challenges.
“The mine is focused on stabilising power supply to the mine to achieve stable production and various initiatives are being pursued including, among other efforts, investment in additional generators to increase capacity and coverage of the key activities in the mine’s production critical path,” Chiurayi further said.
As for the base metals business, Empress Nickel Refinery remained under care and maintenance throughout the quarter.
However, for the diamond business, the group’s associate, RZM Murowa recorded a 20 percent increase in production compared to the same period in the prior year due to increased throughput and plant capacity after commissioning the 500tph plant in the third 2022.
“The mine continues to process material from its low-grade stockpiles. The mine is also expanding its exploration activities which are mainly centered on extending the life of its pits with a view to resuscitating mining operations in the current pits,” Chiurayi further said.
On the outlook, Chiurayi said exploration remains at the center of the group’s expansion drive hence the Group is focused on expanding its exploration activities across the group’s resource portfolios and upgrading the resources of the producing mines to increase the confidence levels. newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw