HWANGE Colliery Company Limited, Zimbabwe’s largest coal producer, has opened one of its biggest underground shafts as part of a modernisation drive backed by a Chinese firm Zhong Jiani Investment.
The company is introducing advanced long-haul mining equipment designed to boost efficiency and cut costs.
“We are going to introduce high-tech mining equipment called long-haul, equipment that will be producing close to 210,000 tonnes per annum from one mining area,” said Underground Mining Consultant Engineer Akim Mutiti.
The shafts, each one kilometre long at a 12-degree incline, intersect coal seams 240 metres below the surface. Development tunnels already extend nearly a kilometre, with plans to reach six kilometres. Current output is 600,000 tonnes per year, with production expected to rise to 2.5 million tonnes next year.
Mutiti said the new equipment offers superior performance and reliability. Extraction rates are high, with up to 90% recovery of the 10-metre seam.
“We will be separating coking coal and HPS coal mine right from source,” he said. Two conveyor belts will transport coal to the surface, where it will be washed and processed.
Coal from the new shafts will feed a coke oven, with gases from the process used to power a new 420 MW station planned near the site. Zimbabwe’s largest existing plant, the Hwange Thermal Power Station, has a capacity of 1,520 MW but suffers from ageing infrastructure. The new station is expected to ease shortages and strengthen the grid.
Hwange’s coking coal is in demand regionally, with South Africa and Zambia among key export destinations. The expansion is expected to bring in foreign currency and support Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 growth agenda.
The project is creating jobs and infrastructure, though community groups have raised concerns about pollution and environmental risks. Globally, few new underground coal projects of this scale are being developed as many countries shift to renewables, placing Hwange among the exceptions in Africa.
Hwange Colliery is under a government-led reconstruction scheme.
