Mowana employs 200 workers as mining resumes
Chakalisa Dube | Friday March 31, 2017 16:15
The resident director at the mine, Thuso Dikgaka confirmed the development to BusinessWeek on Wednesday.
Pen Min Holdings recently acquired Mowana through its local registered enterprise Leboam Holdings, which is wholly owned by Cradle Arch Investments.
The mine was acquired with money amounting to a whooping P89 million from African Copper, a subsidiary of ZCI, a company that is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
On the other hand, Cradle Arch was recently acquired by Alecto Minerals--a company with interest in old and base metal exploration. Alecto owns several mines across Africa. “We have fixed the plant and we have been running production tests.
The plant is functioning well. We are working on fulfilling certain legal requirements before we resume operations. We will definitely resume operations early in April,” Dikgaka said.
He said currently the mine has approximately 200 employees including those from the mining contractor and will produce 1.2 million tonnes of ore per year.
Last month, Giant Transport Holdings Limited was awarded a six-month contract to do mining at Mowana. Late last year, the company also announced that pit clean-up operations was commencing.
“I anticipate that the mine will employ more people once it has started full production. We will have an overall of 300 employees including those that will be employed by the contractor when full production has resumed,” he said.
Capital Drilling Limited has also been awarded the contract for drill and blast. The company mobilised its equipment to the site late last month.
Early this year, the new Mowana owners announced that they will raise around £1 million through the issue of convertible loan notes to restart operations at the mine.
The mine has been under care and maintenance for more than a year. Mowana was placed under care and maintenance after its then owners African Copper failed to pay its creditors who then applied for the liquidation of the mine.
The closure of Mowana led to 400 direct and indirect job losses.