Mining start-up to plough US$100k into exploration

FARMERS in the Lowveld should consider cotton growing as the crop has potential to contribute significantly towards national economic turnaround, Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri has said.

Government through Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco), is aggressively pushing for the revival of cotton production after it plunged in recent years attributable to low prices and poor funding.

However, last year the significantly funded cotton production fell victim to El Nino-induced severe drought that ravaged most parts of the country.

Cotton is the source crop for clothing and textile sector raw materials, besides that cotton seed is used for the production of cooking oil, rubber, plastics and cattle feed.

It also serves as an input for oils used in cosmetics and various cuisines and other value chains.

Addressing farmers during the launch of inputs distribution at Chiwenga and Musingwa in Muzarabani, Minister Shiri, said the crop offered wide-ranging benefits to the Zimbabwean economy.

Minister Shiri told the gathering how cotton production would minimise shortages of basics such as cooking oil, pointing out that the country’s import bill would be significantly cut if cotton production is pursued vigorously.

He said foreign currency meant for oil imports would be used to import other supplies such as fuel, medicines and electricity.

“We should grow cotton for export, which will earn the country foreign currency, which will then be used for procurement of critical supplies like medicinal drugs and funds (forex) critical to support local industry.

“Cotton is another source of cooking oil besides soyabeans and sunflower, so if we grow enough cotton, cooking oil supply in the county will also improve and cooking oil prices will come down,” Minister Shiri said.

Meanwhile, Cottco managing director Mr Pious Manamike, said the new high yielding cotton variety acquired from India was already making headways into the country for proportionate distribution across the country targeting a minimum of 10 000 hectares for the 2019/20 cotton farming season.

He acknowledged that preparations for planting was behind as projected but all was in control and anticipated full distribution of inputs in a fortnight.

“We are slightly behind time but I am happy because I think in two weeks’ time we would have all the seed requirements countrywide and tillage programme is moving on well. As for seed, we are slightly behind time but we have received the first batch of the hybrid seed, it was airlifted from India so we got half of it and the remaining will be coming in a week or so.

“We are going to give this seed proportionally country wide, and we are going to start off with seed that covers 10 000 hectares.

“The seed is high yielding, it can do a minimum of seven tonnes per hectare but good farmers can achieve 20 tonnes per hectare, secondly it is drought tolerant, we tried it the past season and the results were very positive under very dry conditions,” Mr Manamike said.

A MINING start-up, Sullivan Enterprise, is preparing to splurge an initial US$100 000 in exploratory work for brownfield copper deposits near Chinhoyi in Mashonaland West after winning a High Court battle over the claims.

In an interview with this publication the company’s director, Patrick Mukwindidza, said the firm had initially managed to secure an investor from Australia but the funder pulled out after the project was encumbered by a legal wrangle.

With the court processes now over and Sullivan having won their tittle to the claims, Mr Mukwindidza said the firm will, in the short term, roll out an exploration programme up to “decision to mine stage” and then use the same results to attract investment.

He said the firm is looking forward to start mine construction and subsequent production next year.

“We intend to potentially start mine construction and production in the next year,” Mr Mukwindidza told The Herald Finance & Business from his base in Australia.

“. . . we intend to re-start exploration work, which has been on hold for the past 18 months. We have enough resources to carry out the exploration up to decision to mine stage where we are confident we can use the results to attract capital.

“Most of us (Sullivan Enterprise shareholders) have experience in international capital markets and I am confident that we can bring jobs to Mash West if we are given the opportunity to do our work without interference.

“So the initial exploration is for only the oxide ore and later more expensive exploration will be required for the deeper sulphide ore, but that is down the (priority) line and for the initial phase we are looking at around US$100 000.

He explained that the claims are brownfield having been partially exploited in the late 1960s and that there are some outcrops as well.

Market watchers regard copper as the bellwether metal as it measures the rate of industrialisation of an economy due to its use in the house construction industry.

Expectations are that it will strengthen in the medium to long-term due to its use in the electrical vehicle market where the world looks to be migrating to.

Copper is one of the key components in the charge stations for electrical vehicles and is also used in storage batteries together with lithium and cobalt.