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Anglo American Platinum has said that it will go ahead with plans to build a smelter at Unki Mine in 2016. Amplats chief financial officer Colin Chibafa told a media briefing at Unki Mine in Shurugwi last Friday that contrary to reports, the group would not construct a “second-hand” smelter but will use material which had already been bought by the group for its

operations in South Africa.

“What we want to do is to build a smelter at the least possible new capital spend. We are not going to set up a second-hand smelter but rather make use of new equipment which is already within the Amplats storage. It will be a 10MW smelter.” Mr Chibafa said that there was no going back on the project with approvals expected to have been received at the end of the year.

“Work is expected to commence early next year.” This comes as Government has directed platinum mining companies to set up refineries in the country to beneficiate the mineral in order for the country to realise optimum returns. However, the mining companies have been dragging their feet arguing they still need to build the critical mass production to make construction of platinum refinery economically justifiable.

The mining houses also cited limited electricity generation capacity as another constraint that first needs to be addressed prior to setting up of a refinery to value-add the mineral.

But Government has insisted on the facility arguing the country needs to fully benefit from extraction of platinum. As such, it introduced a 15 percent levy on raw exports in January, which was later suspended. This was on condition that the miners, who claimed the levy had rendered operations unprofitable after the fall in global prices, demonstrated their commitment to establish a refinery in the country.

Mr Chibafa said while miners acknowledged that the 15 percent tax had been suspended through an announcement, there had not been a statutory instrument released to give effect to it. On the power situation, Mr Chibafa said Unki, together with other platinum miners were assured of power till about 2020 as they had prepayments to help ZESA pay its debt to HCB Mozambique and to kick-start Kariba South Power Station expansion.

In terms of production, Unki said it expects a flat production outcome at full year at 61 000 ounces. For the quarter to September production was at 16 000 ounces. This, the group said, was despite a five-day shut down that occurred at the mine during the period under review. “Unki mine production was flat at 16 000 ounces for the quarter despite a five-day shut down for general plant maintenance, due to grade optimisation,” the platinum mining giant said in its latest quarterly report.

Meanwhile, Unki expects to complete the first phase of its massive $120 million housing project in Shurugwi by December. Mr Chibafa said the first phase will see the release of 350 houses to its workers while in total the group will construct 900 houses. The project will also comprise a primary school. “We are currently constructing three different sets of houses which will be made available to employees. We have also just completed the construction of a primary school within the complex.”