Zimbabwe’s Bindura Nickel Corporation will restart its smelter by
December after raising $20 million from a five-year bond, a company
official said on Tuesday.
Bindura Nickel, which is
majority-owned by African miner Mwana Africa, said it had already
received enquiries from miners in Australia to smelt their produce.
Bindura, Africa’s only
integrated nickel company, with a mine, smelter and refinery, had its
smelter and refinery closed for more than 10 years after nickel prices
fell and Zimbabwe’s economy went into recession, making operations
unprofitable.
The bond, which was issued
to local investors, was underwritten by the Zimbabwe unit of pan-African
lender Ecobank and attracted an interest of 10 percent.
Mwana Africa chief
executive Kalaa Mpinga said the smelter would start operating within
nine months, with a capacity to process 160,000 tonnes of nickel matte
per year.
Bindura currently sells
nickel concentrate to Glencore but after the smelter starts running, the
company would be exporting nickel alloy, increasing its revenues by up
to 20 percent, Mpinga said.
“Ever since we started the
process of refurbishing the smelter we have been approached by nickel
producers as far as away Australia to find out whether we will be able
to process some of their material,” Mpinga told analysts and
journalists.
Mpinga said Glencore would
be given an opportunity to buy nickel alloy if it makes a competitive
offer.
Mpinga also said Bindura
was looking at processing platinum group metals by modifying its
smelter.
Zimbabwe in January levied
a 15 percent tax on the export of unrefined platinum to force platinum
mining companies to set up refineries in the southern African country.
Source: thezimbanwemail |