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Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
FERROCHROME smelter, Zimbabwe Alloys (ZimAlloys) has commissioned its M1 Blast Furnace as part of it’s first phase of the refurbishment process, in a move that would result in the company smelting 4,000 tonnes and generating up to $4 million per month.

ZimAlloys, which is wholly owned by Benscore, a local consortium of businesspeople fronted by Farai Rwodzi, has also announced plans to revamp four other furnaces at the plant starting with the A3 furnace, which is the biggest furnace at the Gweru plant with a capacity to smelt 3,600 tonnes of chrome ore per month. The latest developments has seen ferrochrome smelter re-engaging 300 workers.

ZimAlloys judicial manager, Reggie Saruchera said the company was seeking $2,5 million through phase two of the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund (Dimaf), which will see the furnace being commissioned by the end of the year.

“We’re already functional as we speak and at the moment 300 workers are back at work. I’m pleased to announce that we commissioned our M1 blast furnace yesterday and what we want now is to build on what we’ve already done.

“The A3 furnace should be done by the end of next year and the development should be able to cement the company’s revival as turnover will be at least $4 million a month,” he said.

Prior to the commissioning of the M1 furnace, the ferrochrome smelter had diversified to brick moulding as part of efforts to keep operations afloat.

The Gweru-based ferrochrome smelter has also entered into a partnership with Chinese chrome smelter, Jinan in the recycling of its chrome dumps to do metal recovery which is about two percent of the dump waste.

The judicial manager welcomed the lifting of the chrome ban and said they were now in the process of renewing their chrome exporting licence.

“We’re excited about the lifting of the chrome export ban because the situation will allow us to raise capital and revive operations to full throttle without any outside capital injection. If we’re allowed to export three million tonnes of chrome ore in the next five years to the world market, we’ll unlock a value of $225 million of which $37 million will go towards the refurbishment of the all the furnaces at the plant which will see the company production reaching optimum levels,” he said.