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Senior Business Reporter— 
MATABELELAND North mining concern, China Africa Sunlight Energy, has started clearing land for the construction of workers’ accommodation and the colliery. China Africa Sunlight Energy, which is a joint venture between Old Stone Investments of Zimbabwe and Shandong Taishan Sunlight – a Chinese conglomerate – intends to establish a colliery and a 600 megawatt thermal power station.
The company’s deputy general manager, Retired Colonel Charles Mugari, told Business Chronicle in an interview yesterday that construction of staff accommodation at the mine was scheduled to begin at the end of the month.

He said construction of the colliery mine would begin in October.

“We have just gone through clearing the site for civil works for the construction of a residential area at the mine and construction of the mine is expected to start in October,” said Rtd Col Mugari.

The firm, which also intends to extract methane gas, completed exploration activities in the Gwayi area with results indicating that the concession has huge coal and methane gas deposits for commercial exploitation.

“Coal from our mining operations will be devoted for the power station. We are looking forward to producing between 1,2 million tonnes and 1,6 million tonnes of coal per year,” he said.

It is hoped that the $2,1 billion project that covers coal mining, methane gas extraction and power generation will contribute significantly to economic development through employment creation and electricity supply.

Zimbabwe, which has a national demand of 2,200MW, has over the years been experiencing power challenges as the country is presently producing about 1,300MW.

Power constraints have been cited as one of the major challenges impacting negatively on efforts to increase capacity utilisation by local industries.

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, an industrial representative body, indicated in its manufacturing survey report that capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector last year was at 39,6 percent down from 44,9 percent in 2012.

It is envisaged that electricity generated by China Africa Sunlight Energy thermal power station will be fed into the national grid.
The thermal power plant by China Africa Sunlight Energy was one of the many projects that the government expects will improve power generation and supply in the country.