HARARE – Zimbabwe Platinum Holdings (Zimplats) says it is looking at ways to reduce its foreign currency expenditure by acquiring some critical raw materials locally.
The company already has a policy of purchasing 60 percent of its products from local suppliers.
The platinum producer’s head of corporate affairs Busi Chidove said the new target is to go beyond the target of just buying locally but also empowering small and medium enterprises so that they become part of our supply chain.
In this respect Zimplats has engaged a Norton-based company – Central African Forge – to enhance their capacity to produce mill balls, which are a critical material in the mining process.
Mill balls are used in ball mills, which are a typical type of fine grinder. This is basically a slightly inclined or horizontal rotating cylinder is partially filled with balls, usually stone or metal, which grind material to the necessary fineness by friction and impact with the tumbling balls.
“The key issue that we are working on now is that we all know that there is huge strain on the foreign currency available in our country. So what we are trying to do is to look through our business and see where we are spending foreign currency outside the country. And to what extent can we localize those purchases so that what we are buying from overseas can be manufactured locally so that we do not put further strain on the little available foreign currency,” she said.
Zimbabwe, which was primarily using the United States dollar as its chief transaction currency (prior to the introduction of the bond notes) is battling cash shortages that have been triggered by high imports and externalisation.
“One example is a local company here called Central African Forge. If you go to anyone in the mining industry they will tell you that they use a lot of mill balls and for us it’s one of the key expenditures in terms of forex.
If we are able to localize the manufacture of these mill balls it will be a huge impact for us and a huge impact for the country. So we are working with Central African Forge, it’s a company based in Norton. We are trying to see how we can strengthen them, partner with them so that they can develop their capacity to make those mill balls.”
Zimplats is the country’s largest platinum producer and operates four shallow mechanized underground mines, one open-pit and two concerntrators at Ngezi.
