Godfrey Marawanyika Harare
HWANGE Colliery, the partly state-owned Zimbabwean coal mining firm, was in talks with Glencore to sell the company its coal and coke products, the company said.
Hwange, which operates a mine in north-west Zimbabwe, is the country’s largest coal mining company after Makomo Resources and a supplier of the fuel to state-owned power utility Zesa Holdings. The firm currently produces about 200 000 tons of coal a month.
“We are talking to Glencore, they are interested in our coal and other coke products,” Thomas Makore, Hwange’s managing director, said on Sunday. “For now, I can’t disclose the quantities which Glencore wants or the cost due to confidentiality.”
The firm said last year that it was considering a rights offer to reorganise $70 million (R819m) in debt and to pay its 3 200 employees,
Zimbabwe’s government is the biggest shareholder in Hwange Colliery with a 37 percent stake, while British businessman Nicholas van Hoogstraten holds 20 percent through Messina Investments.
The company exports about 5 000 tons of coking coal, used to make steel, to South Africa every month.
Gugulethu Maqetuka, a spokesman for Glencore in South Africa, did not immediately respond to queries.
Glencore shares rose 2.1 percent to R53 in early trading, before closing 0.58 percent down at R51.60on the JSE yesterday. – Bloomberg