eBusiness Weekly
Ishemunyoro Chingwere
Turnall Holdings’ asbestos fibre imports have dropped 30 percent following resumption of production at Shabanie Mashaba Mines’ (SMM) dump tailings in Zvishavane and Mashava, according to Turnall Holdings managing director Roseline Chisveto.
Chrysotile asbestos fibre is the major raw material in the manufacture of asbestos roofing tiles and sheets and other related products.
In an interview with Business Weekly this week, Chisveto said the engagements between the roofing material manufacturer and the miner could see Turnall halting all fibre imports and turning to SMM for all its requirements by year-end.
SMM suspended mining operations at its Zvishavane and Mashaba mines in 2007, leaving roofing material manufacturers such as Turnall, turning to foreign suppliers for their asbestos fibre requirements.
The situation has resulted in manufacturing companies filling the foreign currency squeeze as they are importing goods that ordinarily should be obtained on the local market.
But SMM last year began exploiting its vast on the ground chrysotile tailings dumps to recoup value while work on accessing mining areas and reviving the mine continues.
“As you know SMM has already started operating, they are mining form their dumpsites and they have already started supplying us,” said Chisveto.
“The issues we are looking at are improvements from the current supplies in terms of the quality that they are producing (and) the grades that they have been producing. As a percentage (of our fibre requirements) we started on 10 percent, now we have actually moved to 30 percent and we are actually moving to 40 percent. By the end of the year, we are hoping to be on 100 percent local fibre usage in our factories, but for now we are importing 70 percent and 30 percent that we are getting from local mines.
“It’s (buying locally) important for us because what it means is we no longer have so much requirements in terms of forex because when we import it means more forex is required,” she said.
The Turnall boss also spoke on the quality of fibre generated from the dump, which she said satisfies her company’s requirements.
“I think the processes are just the same and all the other processes in making sure that the right quality of fibre comes out.
“They test the fibre and we also test it in our lab when we receive it, so I would say the quality has actually greatly improved because when we started we started on trials,” she said.
SMM has a total of 49 tailing dumps, which have been piled from the mine’s 100 years of mining which stretched from 1907 to 2007.
During the century long mining period, the mines in Zvishavane and Gaths Mine, have accumulated 143 million tonnes of tailings from which it is now exploiting for asbestos fibre.
There are also other minerals in the dumps, among them magnesium, nickel, chrome as well as traces of Platinum group metals, copper and gold but the firm does not have the requisite technology to retrieve these.
Shabanie Mine audited potential
According to findings of a 2006 audit by an Australian based internationally acclaimed professional body — the Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC), which specialises in codes for public reporting of minerals exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves, the case for investment into Shabanie Mine is compelling.
The initial audit shows that, in the short term, the mine has a capacity to produce silky ore and brittle ore fibre worthy $765 million over the next 16 years at an annual capacity rate of 78 000 tonnes per year.
The internationally sought after silky ore constitutes the bulky of the reserves, which can earn the mine $689 million from the mining out of about 18, 1 million tonnes with an annual average output of at least 72 000 tonnes per year from their plant that has a 75 000 tonnes per year capacity. Audited results also show that the mine has over 2,33 million tonnes in the less sought brittle ore reserves, which can be exploited over the next 16 years at an annual rate of 6 000 tonnes per year earning the mine a total of $76, 66 million.
Plans are afoot for further exploration to quantify what the mine can produce in the long-term but indications from the host rock are that the silky will still dominate.
