HWANGE – AIM-listed Sable Mining Africa is set to start exploration work at its Liberation Mine in Lubimbi near Hwange this month after receiving an undisclosed capital injection for the project.
The company is among the 24 companies that were granted special grants by government to mine coal and methane gas along the rich belt in 2003 but failed to get investment for the project.
Liberation Mine managing director Rainor Robson said the company would start exploration at the end of this month.
“We are moving in at the end of the month. That is when there will be activity. I cannot say how much we have secured for the project but it’s enough to allow us to move in,” he said.
The venture, a $500 million project is according to officials, expected to produce between 12-15 million tonnes of coal per year in the first five years and 20 million tonnes per annum thereafter.
Initial forecasts indicated that the company would spend $140 million in the first year on pre-stripping, open cast mining, engineering and infrastructure capital as well as indirect costs and $370 million to start mining.
Former England cricketer Phil Edmonds and Zimbabwean entrepreneur Andrew Groves are among the drivers behind Sable Mining Africa, whose subsidiary, Somedon Investment, is the largest shareholder in Liberation Mine with 49 percent while the rest is held by local investors.
Makomo Resources and China Africa Sunlight are among the few companies that have started exploring coal in the area while most of them have been accused of holding on to the claims for speculative purposes.