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The land that has been cleared for development by China Africa Sunlight Energy and (insets) artistic impressions of future developments in Gwayi

Oliver Kazunga recently in Gwayi
THE establishment of a $400 million coal mine and a residential complex in the Gwayi area of Matabeleland North by China Africa Sunlight Energy (CASE) has begun with major infrastructure development underway. The new company, a joint venture between Zimbabwe’s Old Stone Investments and Shandong Taishan Sunlight of China, will spend $2.1 billion in the next five years on thermal power generation, coal mining and coal-bed methane gas extraction in projects set to create jobs for hundreds of people in the province.

Business Chronicle visited the site on Wednesday and observed that about 59 hectares had been cleared to pave way for the construction of staff houses with a capacity to accommodate about 1,000 workers.

Company officials said a 600 megawatts power plant and colliery equipment would also be set up at the same site.
At present the company has set up makeshift offices where part of its workforce is housed for preliminary works.

CASE deputy general manager Retired Colonel Charles Mugari said the clearing of the industrial and residential site had been completed with civil works expected to begin mid next month.

“We’ll start with the construction of the coal mine and staff quarters. Clearing of the sites has been completed and hopefully mid next month civil works for the project will begin,” he said.

Rtd Col Mugari said the construction of the mine and a residential complex was expected to be completed by 2016.
The investment is one of the projects in Matabeleland region envisaged to boost the economy through power generation and employment creation.

“We’ve employed a concept called Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC). The concept entails engaging a contractor who will sub-contract local contractors, so until we finalise with our EPC contractor, we don’t know the number of people to be employed in the initial stage of the project,” said Rtd Col Mugari.
It is hoped that the investment by China Africa will create about 4,500 jobs in the next two years.

As part of the first phase of the project, CASE intends to construct a 300 coal-fired power station while another 300 megawatt power plant will be built under the second phase of the energy project that will focus on coal-bed methane gas extraction.

Rtd Col Mugari said their 100,000 hectare concession had good quality coal-bed methane gas reserves.
“We’ve done investigatory exploration and results have shown that the concession has enough and good quality methane gas reserves. We intend to start confirmatory exploration for coal-bed methane gas before the end of the year.
“The exercise will take between six and nine months to complete.
“After confirmatory exploration, that’s when we’ll start drilling holes to extract the gas,” he added.
Electricity generated by CASE will be fed into the national grid, a development that will improve power supply in the country.
Due to economic challenges facing the country, Zimbabwe’s power utility Zesa is producing about 1,400MW at present against a national demand of 2,200MW.