Africa-Press – Eswatini. The mining sector in Eswatini has been idle for decades, but there appears to be a spark to reignite it.
L.C.E Investments (Pty) Ltd, trading as Mpaka Colliery, is set to commence mining at Mpaka in six months’ time. This serves as evidence to what the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo’s declaration that at least about new 10 companies were set to go live this year and create about 5 000 jobs. According to Khumalo, implementing these projects is part of his ministry’s strategy to execute the inputs made by emaSwati during the Sibaya – People’s Parliament held late last year.
In an interview with the business desk, L.C.E Director Mlungisi Dlamini confirmed that indeed his company was among those that will start running this year and deliver the promised jobs and improve the country’s economy.
Final
He said they were ready to commence mining in the next six months as almost all the required preparations were at the final stage of preparations to start extracting the coal at the defunct Mpaka coal mine. Dlamini attributed the slow progress in operations to the work that was happening in the background regarding the preparation of a plant that will process the coal. He noted that it had become a norm for the local mining sector to send raw materials to other countries for processing.
“We are busy preparing a plant and that is another factor that is contributing to the delays. We want to clean the coal ourselves, a process that will increase the value of our product,” Dlamini said. The director said their primary market would be the energy generation companies and they were set to grow the business going forward in order to increase the country’s economy and improve the lives of emaSwati. Dlamini further explained that one of the things they were working on was an agreement with another company that had approached them to extract ammonia, but the discussions were still in the early stages. “There is a company that approached us to extract ammonia from our coal, but nothing has been finalised yet. We are currently focussing on energy since that is our forte,” added Dlamini.
Notably, the production of ammonia involves a gasification process where coal or coke is reacted with oxygen and steam to produce a synthetic gas for making ammonia, the components for the syngas are so selected that the syngas can be used in the synthesis of ammonia without the addition of nitrogen.
Mixutre
Instead of using oxygen to make the syngas, a mixture of oxygen and air is used as the source of oxygen, the mixutre being in a ratio such that the syngas contains nitrogen and hydrogen in a molar ratio of about 1 to 3. About 80 per cent of the ammonia produced by the industry is used in agriculture as fertiliser. Ammonia is also used as a refrigerant gas, for purification of water supplies and in the manufacture of plastics, explosives, textiles, pesticides, dyes and other chemicals.
Speaking during the scooping meeting with Dvokodvweni residents where the mine is, the director said in terms of job opportunities, they intended to prioritise and develop emaSwati. Dlamini noted that the company was the first liSwati-owned company to be granted mining licences in the country. He said it was for that reason that they intend to make sure emaSwati benefitted from this project first. He highlighted that as His Majesty King Mswati III said during the Parliament opening in February in 2022, that the reopening of mines should benefit emaSwati, that was exactly what they intended to do.
Worth noting is that the Mpaka mine was closed in 1992 and plans to reopen it started in 2021, when one company named Lurco Coal Eswatini (Pty) Limited was granted a prospective license. However, Lurco Coal Eswatini was eventually granted the mining licence for part of the mine and the other part to be mined by L.C.E Investments. L.C.E was granted the mining license on January 4, 2023.
Machinery
The proposed mine will both be open cast and shaft mine. As part of the proposed mine re-opening, the site will have, but not limited to, a run of mine stockpile, a crusher plant, a screening plant, above ground hydrocarbon storage facility, a workshop for mine machinery maintenance, explosive magazine storage facility, offices and portable water storage tank.
His Majesty the King granted the mining licences to L.C.E Investments (Pty) Ltd and Lurco Coal Eswatini (Pty). Robert Biyela, the Commissioner of Mines, said: “Two licences have been granted. One has been given to L.C.E Investments (Pty) Ltd and the other to Lurco Coal Eswatini (Pty) Ltd, adjacent to each other. In short, they are neighbours.” It is said that Lurco would operate a portion of the coal plant, while L.C.E would make use of the remainder. It means there are two companies that will mine coal at Mpaka.
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