By Patience Rashai

Zimbabwe’s largest ferrochrome producer, Zimasco is set to resume operations, for the last quarter, having closed in April owing to depressed international markets due to the COVID 19.

Zimasco General Manager, Clara Sadomba said that all was set for resumption of work, in line with Government’s call to continue with mining since it is pivotal in achieving vision 2030.

“We are restarting production for the fourth quarter as demand from our customers in the global market place is set to return in this fourth quarter, going into 2021. As such we are restarting our furnaces as normal.

“In an effort to combat the spread of COVID 19 many Governments world-wide suspended or slowed down operations, which meant that stainless steel mills across the world had to stop or significantly reduce production, hence we had to halt operations. But going forward we are back in business,” she said.

She added that it was important for the mining sector to stay ahead of the game since the sector was set to generate annual revenue of US$12 billion by year 2023, in accordance with Government’s Vision 2030 which premised on the mining sector making huge contributions.

“Benefits accruing from this sector will be critical building blocks for a prosperous Zimbabwe,” she added.

In 2018, the company was weaned from judiciary management following improved turnover. The Kwekwe smelter has an operational capacity of 180 000 tonnes of ferrochrome per year.