Liberation dogged by new scandal

27 Apr, 2018 - 00:04 0 Views

eBusiness Weekly

Business Writer
Controversy continues to harangue Liberation Mining Limited’s Hankano Coalfield project amid fears that the project will fall foul of environmentally friendly mining practices.
The project has been earmarked in the precincts of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam in Matebeleland North.

Information reaching the Business Weekly is that the Russian investors were controversially awarded a licence for the coal mining concern against previous feasibility studies which raised questions on the project’s compliance to environmental compliance.

Liberation Mining’s licence was gazetted in February. The project itself has been, for a long while, been pegged back by regulatory and statutory demands which have been persistently changing.

The project is set to pose a test to Government which despite pulling all stops to attract investment has insisted that it will not compromise on environmentally unsustainable projects.

Liberation Mining chief executive Peter Mutsinya told the Business Weekly that the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has sent a team of highly technical team of experts to undertake a Detailed Environmental and Hydrological Study of the “red hot zone area” in order to come up with mitigatory measures on preventing pollution of the dam water through Acid Mine Drainage.

“While it is accepted that an area measuring 2,736 hectares which is part of the Coal and Gas Special Grant is likely to be affected by the Gwayi-Shangani Dam water throw back, EMA has sent a team of technical experts to come and undertake a Detailed Environmental and Hydrological Study of the “red hot zone area” in order to come up with mitigatory measures on preventing pollution of the dam water through Acid Mine Drainage.

“EMA team’s initial findings have shown that the coal on Hankano Coalfield where Liberation Mining Operations are situated is not highly acidic and the water analysis showed normal levels of the key elements contained,” said Mutsinya.

Acid Mine Drainage is currently the main pollutant of surface water in the mid-Atlantic region. AMD is caused when water flows over or through sulfur-bearing materials forming solutions of net acidity. AMD comes mainly from abandoned coal mines and currently active mining.

Despite the environmental concerns being raised, Mutsinya said the new coal mining concern will inject $100 million over the next five years targeting a production of 15 million tonnes per annum by 2022.

The company is among the 24 companies that were granted special grants by Government to mine coal and methane gas along the rich belt in 2003 but failed to get investment for the project.

Liberation Mining – in which Sable Mining Africa Limited has acquired a 49 percent stake through its subsidiary, Somedon Investments (Pvt) Ltd – got a special grant to mine in the coal rich Lubimbi area of Matabeleland North province.

This year, Liberation Mining plans to mine between 1, 5 million tonnes and 2 million tonnes of coal. The project is worth an estimated S$500 million.

Mutsinya said the coal is targeting to produce four million tonnes next year and seven million tonnes in 2020.

Liberation Mining has so far employed 160 people but its strategy entails creating more jobs through contract mining.

Three firms, including Passmark and CML, have since been engaged.
However, some employees would be hired directly.

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