Sabi Star Mine says its’ putting final touches to its US$25 million 15 MW thermal power plant and targets to fully integrate the station in the second half of this year.
Currently, the Buhera-based lithium mine is running on heavy duty generators. With the rising costs of diesel and maintenance costs, Sabi Star Mine is aiming to switch to low-cost thermal power.
In an interview this week, Sabi Star mine manager Eng Oswald Makonese said construction works was almost complete.
“We had massive progress last year. Civil works are at 80 percent completion. We have already taken delivery of all the machinery and equipment for the power plant.
“What’s left is just to assemble the power equipment. We are pleased with the progress so far.”
Eng. Makonese said the thermal power plant will generate up to 15 MW gross electrical power output.
“The mine system has a requirement of 12 MW and there are plans to feed the additional 3 MW into the national grid for the benefit of the near-by community.
“The over-arching benefit of the project is that it has already created employment for hundreds of people in Buhera. The development of this infrastructure will provide a boost to the local economy through the income multiplier effect,” he added.
Responding to the issue of potential hazards of thermal affluent to villagers in the near communities, Eng. Makonese said there was a plan in place to minimise that.
“The plant has a flue gas conditioning equipment including a 60 m tall chimney. This includes a Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) system and electrostatic precipitators.
“The FGD process is designed to remove a significant percentage of the Sulphur dioxide contained within the flue gases in order to comply with current SI 72 of 2009 and SAZ ZSW 977. We anticipate that FGD will remove up to 99% of the particulate matter,” Eng. Makonese further added.
For the past 20 years, Zimbabwe has struggled to generate enough electricity to meet demand and has had to turn to countries like Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia to top up supplies.
Zimbabwe has one hydro power plant and four coal-fired generators with a total combined capacity of 2,240 MW, just enough to meet the country’s demand.
But the Kariba hydro plant, which commissioned another 300 MW in 2018, is only producing a third of its design output because of low dam water levels due to the drought.
Most miners, especially platinum producers import their own power, which secures production, but other smaller mines rely on the unstable national grid. This has seen most upcoming mining projects investing in power generation to avoid downtime.
Sabi Star Mine started as an exploration project in 2015, culminating in a bankable feasibility study being completed in 2021 and preliminary construction works started in June 2022. The current delineated resource gives a Mine Life of 7 years, but the mine, through its current exploration activities, plans to double its Mine Life.
In May 2023, a record 11 months after inception and seven months ahead of schedule, the mine entered its testing phase. It’s a record time compared to other international projects of similar size.
Sabi star lithium mine is one of the three biggest lithium projects in this country, and among a few big lithium Mines in Africa. However, what sets Sabi Star apart from the rest is that it holds the best grade of spodumene ore in Africa.
At full production, Sabi Star Mine will produce 300 000 tonnes of concentrate per year generating in excess of US$600 million for the nation at the current prices.
In addition to generating the much-needed foreign currency for the country, Sabi Star Lithium Mine has also been active in community investment.
At the peak of construction, the mine created employment for 1000 employees, over 80 percent of whom came from local communities. At present Sabi Star still employs 600 people on various projects of the mine.
Through the procurement of goods and services from the local suppliers, several downstream businesses are going to thrive in this district and beyond. Sabi Star is promoting the growth of the Provincial and National Gross Domestic Product.
