Zimplats Holdings Ltdmeru coffee

Zimplats Holdings Limited (Zimplats) is 87 percent owned by Implats and is located on the Hartley Geological Complex on the Zimbabwean Great Dyke south-west of Harare. Following the completion of the Ngezi Phase 1 project, Zimplats has the capacity to produce 180,000 ounces of platinum in matte.Zimplats operates three underground mines and a concentrator at Ngezi. The Selous Metallurgical Complex (SMC), located some 77 km north of the mine, comprises a concentrator and a smelter. History Zimplats was established by Delta Gold Limited (Delta) in 1998 to take over its platinum interests. In May 1999 the company purchased BHP’s share of the Hartley Platinum and the Mhondoro Platinum joint ventures which included a concentrator and smelter. Zimplats initiated the Ngezi/SMC project in 2001 and the first converter matte was exported in April 2002. After first investing in the project in 2001, Implats took control of Zimplats after making a cash offer to minority shareholders in 2003 and now owns a total of 87 per cent of Zimplats.

Zimplats’ business is the production of platinum group metals from the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe. Its vision is to be the best platinum company producing in excess of a million platinum ounces per annum whilst generating superior returns for the benefit of our shareholders, employees and Zimbabwe.

Geology

Platinum was first discovered in the Great Dyke in 1918. The 2.6 billion year old Great Dyke is a sinuous, layered mafic- ultra mafic intrusion similar to that of the Bushveld Complex. It is 550km long with a width ranging between 4 and 11km. Platinum is found in four mafic remnants of which the largest is the Hartley Complex.
Mining
Zimplats commenced production at the Ngezi opencast mine in December 2001. As from 2008 the open cast mine was replaced by underground mining operations. Zimplats has recently officially commissioned the US$340million Ngezi Phase 1 expansion project which was launched in 2006.

The expansion project consisted of:

  • Portal 1 underground mine with a design capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum of ore with a lifespan of 17 years.
  • Portal 4 underground mine producing 2 mtpa of ore with a life of 25 years.
  • Ngezi concentrator milling 2 million tonnes per annum
  • The construction of 700 houses and related infrastructure at Turf village.
    • Development of the underground mines commenced in August 2006. Full production at Portal 1 was achieved in June 2009. Full production at Portal 4 of 2 million tonnes a year will be achieved in May 2011. Preliminary work on the second phase of the expansion programme has commenced and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.

    Metallurgy
    Construction of the Ngezi concentrator commenced in June 2007, it was commissioned in July 2009 and achieved full production in September 2009.This expansion will see Zimplats increasing production to 180,000 oz of platinum from the current 96,000 oz of platinum per year. Around 6,000 tonnes of ore per day is transported by road trains to the Selous Metallurgical Complex (SMC). Concentrate from both the Ngezi concentrator and SMC is then smelted in a submerged arc furnace and converted to matte which is despatched to Impala Platinum’s refinery in South Africa.

    People and Safety
    Zimplats employs slightly above 2,000 employees many of whom are deliberately recruited from the local community. Zimplats is team driven and guided by the slogan ‘one team, one vision with pride’. The Zimplats team has achieved a commendable safety record as reflected by the attainment of 2 million fatality free shifts mid -2009 and zero fatalities in the year ended June 2009. Zimplats walks the talk in recognising that its people are its most important assets and to this end invests continuously in the development of its employees.

    The company has a robust wellness programme that includes a dynamic HIV and AIDS workplace campaign that provides for education, prophylactics, voluntary testing and counselling, management of opportunistic infections and anti-retroviral drugs. The company has attained ISO 9001:2008, OHSAS 18001:2007 and 1SO 14001 certification.

    Sustainable Development
    Zimplats fully embraces its role as a responsible corporate citizen and remains committed to social development initiatives and engages in, develops and builds community relationships. It takes responsibility for economic, social and environmental issues that impact its people, communities and environments.

    It has put in place several major programmes over the years that not only benefit the company but the community around its operations and beyond at a total cost of nearly US$100million as follows: Construction of the Selous /Ngezi Highway – benefiting the general public, chrome miners, farmers and schools; a fibre optic line to Ngezi and telecommunications switching equipment; construction of houses and infrastructure, and Ngezi Weir and water reticulation for Turf Village.

    In partnership with the local power company Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority ( ZESA), several projects have been undertaken to ensure continuity in electricity supplies including the 132kV ZESA power line from Selous to Ngezi for , the construction of a new 330 kv power sub-station for the national power utility ZESA.

    It has embarked upon the Ngezi Agro-industrial project that focuses on growing maize and small grains with local small scale farmers. Recognising the need to contribute to the growth of the thin skills base, Zimplats will be investing in excess of US$3million in the Selous Mining Skills Development centre.