Harare - Foundry and engineering company Thos Begbie is working in the Great Dyke of Zimbabwe, close to the town of Shurungwi, where it is helping to construct the Unki platinum smelter, adjacent to a mining operation owned by platinum mining company Anglo American Platinum (Amplats).
Middelburg, South Africa-based Thos Begbie was awarded the contract for the new smelter last year by Amplats, owing to a government regulation set out in 2015, which replaces the Mines and Minerals Act of 1963, restricting the exportation of raw minerals from Zimbabwe.
The new regulation – the Mines and Minerals Development Bill – was approved in 2016 by then President Robert Mugabe, who was replaced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in November 2017.
“Amplats previously only had a concentrator plant, but it needs a smelter, as the new regulations require the miner to produce final product for sale,” says Thos Begbie sales engineer Esli Bantjes.
The Mines and Minerals Development Bill aims to regulate the export of raw minerals from the country without written consent from the Zimbabwe government, in hopes of increasing growth from the countries’ mining sector.
Bantjes explains that the company completed 24 cast copper contact shoes and 12 stainless steel pressure rings in early December last year, and is now working on completing the required slag launders, slag tapping and matte tapping blocks for the furnace.
Thos Begbie is scheduled to complete the end of this year.
Owing to the remote location of this smelter and other smelters supplied by Thos Begbie, the company uses cargo trucks to deliver all the required smelter parts, he highlights.
In extreme cases, where emergency repairs are required, Thos Begbie can also arrange for components to be delivered by air freight.
The company has a proud South African history and was started by the Scottish marine engineer and pioneer Thomas Begbie in 1887 during the gold-rush era in the newly proclaimed town of Johannesburg.
The company boasts being the preferred vendor to the majority of smelters in 23 countries around the globe.
They specialise in providing water-cooled pure copper elements to the pyrometallurgical industry for both wall and roof components of the furnaces.
Equity Axis News
