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Oliver Kazunga

Senior Business Reporter

BINDURA Nickel Corporation (BNC), whose production was negatively affected in the financial year to March 31, 2023 partly on account of mechanical breakdown, has procured a new bull gear from South Africa to the tune of R25 million (US$1,3 million).

Last year, the nickel producer suffered a Sub-Vertical Rock (SVR) winder bull gear breakdown that was declared a force majeure event, resulting in the loss of October and November production months.

A SVR winder bull gear, which is used to hoist ore and waste from BNC’s underground mining operations broke down last year in October following a seismic event that caused the SVR’s centre bearing to overheat due to misalignment.

Consequently, there was limited hoisting capacity due to the damaged SVR bull gear and thus the SVR winder continued to run at 60 percent of its capacity until the damaged bull gear is replaced.

BNC is a subsidiary of the country’s largest mining group Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) with vast interest in gold, lithium, platinum, nickel and chrome and has since establishment in 2019 been acquiring mothballed mines and industrial operations, giving them a new lease of life.

Such assets also include Shamva Gold Mine, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, Sandawana Mines, Jena Mines, and ZimAlloys.

In an interview last week, KMH group chief finance officer Mr Innocent Rukweza said the bull gear, which would be installed soon is already in the country.

“As we speak we are excited because the bull gear has arrived in the country and they (engineers) will start installation any time from now.

“We are hoping that by end of December or thereabout, we should be ramping up our production on BNC and we are now about to start the processes of installing.

“So, we are very excited about it because BNC had been hard hit by that mechanical failure and we are hopeful and grateful that at least we are on the right path to recovery,” he said.

“We bought it from South Africa and it cost us more than R25 million and we are hoping that it will be online very soon after installation.”

In the year under review, BNC also managed to acquire four (4) new Long Haul Dumps (LHDs), in addition to face rigs, support rigs, and production long-hole rigs during the course of the year.

Meanwhile, in the year ended March 31, 2023, the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange-listed firm suffered huge operational setbacks also emanating from unexpected changes in the ore body leading to a severe decline in the high-grade resource footprint.

Reduced production levels saw tonnes of ore milled dropping by nine percent to 418 020 up from prior year’s tonnage of 461 130.

Low production levels had a bearing on finances as revenue was US$49,5 million compared to US$74,2 million in the prior year.

The cost of sales increased by 18 percent to US$60,5 million, compared to US$51,4 million for the prior year with increases in power costs, high maintenance of aged equipment and the effect of exchange rate disparity playing a key role.

A gross loss of US$11 million was realised in the year under review, compared to a gross profit of US$22,8 million in the previous year, mainly due to the reduced sales volume emanating from the lower production.

BNC is a mining company operating mines and a smelter complex in Bindura and is engaged in the mining and extraction of nickel and production of nickel by-products such as copper and cobalt.

It was founded in 1966 and is a subsidiary of Zimnick Limited and Mwana Africa plc, an African multi-national mining company based in Johannesburg, South Africa.