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Minister Chidhakwa

Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa has appointed a board of directors for Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) tasked with turning around the fortunes of loss making coal miner. Mimosa Mining Company executive chairman Winston Chitando chairs the eight member-board, whose immediate task is to address HCCLs $160 million debt and boost declining production.Minister Chidhakwa said a cocktail of measures had already been put in motion to address Hwange’s operational problems. Government, with a 37 percent stake is the biggest shareholder in the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed coal miner and has five members on the board.

“Negotiations with creditors continue with a view to enter into payment plans consisting of treasury bills backed payment plans and rescheduled payment plans,” he said in a statement on Friday.

The bulk of the company’s debt, about $90 million is owed to tax authorities and over $50 million to workers in unpaid wages and pension contributions.

Minister Chidhakwa said a restructuring exercise had been implemented under which over 170 executives, middle and junior managers were retrenched.

“This resulted in the saving of $280 000 per month on the wage bill, about $3,3 million per year,” he said.

Minister Chidhakwa said HCCL had completed a mine development exercise and would next month commence additional production of 150 000 tonnes of coal.

This would be in addition to between 100 000 and 150 000 tonnes being produced monthly by a Portuguese firm Mota Engil, which Hwange contracted last year.

“Production is currently behind budget because of HCCL’s reconfiguration of operations,” Minister Chidhakwa said.

He said funding for the company’s main underground mining operations was also being negotiated.

Minister Chidhakwa said demand for coal was currently low on the local market and the company would turn its focus to exports. – New Ziana.