ZIMBABWE’S MINING DEVELOPMENT AND ON GOING

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION EFFORTS

FEBRUARY 2014

BY P. SHOKO DIRECTOR EMA

E. T. MUGANDANI & F. MUZANENHAMO - GEOLOGISTS

Contents

1. Introduction 2. Mining in Zimbabwe 3. Outline of the Geology 4. Mineral Resources 5. Mineral Exploration trends 6. Investment opportunities 7. Environmental conservation 8. Concluding Remarks

1.INTRODUCTION

• Mining industry currently Zimbabwe’s biggest target for international investors

• Mineral exports account for over 50% of the country’s foreign exports and earnings.

• The mining sector employs over 45 000 people formally and more than 500 000 informally.

• Long history of mineral exploration and mining • >40 different minerals are known and have been mined

at one point in time. • Most mines generally operated on small-scale basis.

Intr. cont • Environmental conservation now taking a centre stage

for all mining development projects in Zimbabwe. • Long mining history, small scale mining and illegal

miners still a challenge to on going environmental conservation efforts.

2. Mining in Zimbabwe

• Credited for most of present-day infrastructure in Zimbabwe

• Majority of towns and cities developed in the vicinity of mining areas e.g Hwange,Kadoma,Kwekwe etc

• Most railway line branches and some major roads were constructed to serve mining areas

• Many industries arose through mining industry’s needs

• Sector has been declining since 2000 owing to mine closures due to viability problems, but slowly being revived owing to rising global demands for minerals and high mineral potential of geologic environment.

• New fiscal incentives and consideration of new horizons to arrest the decline

• The mining sector continues to act as a magnet for investment in Zimbabwe.

3. GEOLOGY • Geology spanning >3000 Ma. Highly

conducive for diversity of minerals. • Divided into three main eras; i. The Archaean Also known as the Zimbabwe Craton An Archaean Basement principally

composed of granites and gneisses with remnants of volcano-sedimentary piles known as Greenstone Belts.

Covers 60% of the country, central in location.

GEOLOGY 2. The Proterozoic Marked by the Great Dyke, a NNE-

trending intrusion of mafic-ultramafic layered rocks

Emplaced at the end of the Archaean era (2 500 million years ago)

550km long and 4-11km wide Cuts across the entire Craton roughly in

a N-S direction.

Geology • Proterozoic (continued.) Three Proterozoic Metamorphic/”Mobile”

Belts surround the Craton to the north and east, south, and north-west.

The metamorphic belts are rich in economic metamorphic minerals and host several gemstones, precious and base metal mines.

Geology 3. The Phanerozoic Consists of several sequences of sedimentary

rocks covering the peripheries of the Craton Includes Sedimentary basins, the Permian –

Triassic Jurassic Karoo Supergroup, Cretaceous sediments, and Tertiary to Recent sands of the Kalahari

Post Karoo intrusives; various granitic rocks in the southern part of the country, alkali ring complexes, and kimberlites

Zimbabwe Geological Map

Geological Mapping • About 65% of the country mapped

geologically at 1:50 000 by the ZGS • Published at 1:100 000 map sheets

accompanied by explanatory texts (the ZGS Geological Bulletins)

• All other greenstone belts mapped, except one small one, some mapped more than once

• Airborne geophysical surveys conducted over 85% of the country

• Several thematic maps available

Index of Geological Mapping

4. Mineral Exploration

• Preliminary exploration covering whole country done at one point or another

• History of exploration dates back to the 19th century

• Over 4000 Mineral deposits known from ancient workings.

• Current exploration activities biased towards rediscovering ancient workings

Mineral Exploration Continued

• Large scale exploration carried out under licenses issued by the President and administered by the Mining Affairs Board (MAB)

• Large scale exploration licenses issued under two titles, depending on the mineral to be explored;

1. Special Grant (SG) for energy minerals which include Coal, CBM, Natural Gas and Uranium.

Mineral Exploration Continued

2) Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) for all other minerals including base metals, gold, diamond etc.

• Type of license introduced in 1947. • Over 1600 large scale exploration

licenses have been issued to date. • Exploration led to discovery of several

major mines some of which are still operating to date, e.g. Zimplats, Murowa Diamonds, River Ranch, Hwange Colliery

Mineral Exploration Projects • 30 current licences for Coal and CBM

exploration. • Baseline data for current activities is

historical data from previous exploration work done in the 70s and 80s.

• Two coal mine commenced production in 2010 and current production is more than 360 000 ton per month.

5. Minerals of Zimbabwe

• Gold is the major mineral produced in Zimbabwe.

• Platinum and PGMs: The Great Dyke hosts world’s second largest reserves of Pt & PGM after the Bushveld Igneous Complex of RSA.

• Coal: Total of over 20 billion tonnes in situ reserves hosted in sedimentary basins in the Lower Karoo Group.

Minerals of Zimbabwe Continued

• Chromite: About 10 billion tons of resource, over 80% of the world’s resource of metallurgical quality chrome hosted in 11 narrow seams on the GD.

• Coal Bed Methane: Potential resource areas have been identified but commercial viability of the gas is still to be assessed.

• CBM resource is estimated at > 20 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF)

Minerals of Zimbabwe Continued

• Diamond: Potential is huge. Over 150 kimberlites discovered to date. Alluvial deposits are being mined since 2007.

• Iron ore: Over 30 billion tonnes reserves on major deposits. Occurrence associated with BIFs in greenstone belts

• Nickel: Reserves not known but over 30 known deposits. Lateritic nickel on the Great Dyke.

Gold Production 1980-2009

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

Kil

og

ram

mes

Kilogrames 11,443 11,691 13,367 14,101 14,877 14,691 14,853 14,712 14,961 16,018 16,920 17,885 18,258 18,600 20,651 24,344 24,722 24,244 25,146 27512 22070 18049 15469 12564 21330 14023 11353 7018 3579 4966

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Platinum Group Metals

• Ore body occur in the upper pyroxenite layer • 2.8 billion tonnes PGM ore @ 4g/t on the

Great Dyke • Grade and thickness of ore body persists

over large areas • Huge potential in the Lower Sulphide Zone • Potential of other layered igneous complexes

not assessed

Platinum Production 1996-2009

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

Kilogra

ms

Kilograms 7 345 2,730 30 505 519.1 2306 4270 4438 4,833 4,997 5,085 5,496 6849

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Nickel

• Occurs in komatiites correlated throughout the craton

• Potential not known • Over 30 deposits • Two mines currently

operating • Previous exploration

ignored anomalies with no associated Cu

• Lateritic deposits on the Great Dyke hold huge potential

Copper

• Several known copper provinces, main ones being – Deweras sediments – Umkondo Sediments – Piriwiri sediments

• Over 70 copper deposits known • Currently no primary Cu production

although major by-product of gold and PGM mining.

Iron Ore Production 1980-2009

1,000

201,000

401,000

601,000

801,000

1,001,000

1,201,000

1,401,000

1,601,000

1,801,000

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

To

nn

es

1,000

201,000

401,000

601,000

801,000

1,001,000

1,201,000

1,401,000

1,601,000

1,801,000

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

To

nn

es

Uranium • Exploration in the Zambezi Valley in the 1980s

identified several anomalies and Kanyemba deposit.

• Highest grade at Kanyemba is 7.4% U3O8 combined with 12.8% V2O5.

• Potential resource revealed by drilling is 450 000t ore averaging 0.7% U3O8 and 1.4% V2O5. • The resource could be larger - exploration carried

out at the time uranium prices were falling and that the investigations were only done in respect of open castable ore.

• Other anomalies not well probed

Gemstones • Wide variety of gemstones including diamonds and

emeralds. • Several types, e.g aquamarine, tourmaline,

chrysoberyl, topaz, and alexandrite occur in metamorphic pegmatites.

• Emeralds found on the Mweza greenstone belt where the potential is enormous.

• Conducive geological environment for diamondiferous kimberlites.

• Two producing kimberlitic mines. • More than 150 kimberlites have been discovered in

the country to date. • 2007 world-class ancient placer deposit. discovered

in eastern part of Zimbabwe.

Coal

• Large reserves in Lower Karoo of the mid Zambezi & the Save-Limpopo basins.

• Estimated resources of >20 billion tonnes • The Hwange area hosts large reserves of both

coking and thermal coal. • Despite the widespread occurrence,

development and production has so far been confined to Hwange.

• There has recently been some small-scale coal production from the Tuli and Mkwasine coalfields.

Coal Production 1980- 2009

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Tonnes

6.INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES 1.GRASSROOTS EXPLORATION

– Existence of so many known mineral deposits made exploration in virgin areas unnecessary.

– Exploration biased at re-discovering old workings.

– All known mineral deposits are potential areas for detailed grassroots exploration in respect of larger deposits.

2. Downstream processing – Value Addition

• Stainless steel manufacturing – Zimbabwe is a major producer of nickel, chrome and

steel. • Chrome ore processing

– Zimbabwe has the largest chrome ore resources in the world.

• Platinum Refinery – Zimbabwe has the second largest platinum reserves

in the world, platinum locally. • Dimensional Stone Polishing

– Zimbabwe currently exports about 166 000m³ of raw granite per annum.

• Cutting and polishing of gemstones. – Emerald, diamonds, etc limited

8.ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION EFFORT

• Environmental conservation has become an integral part for all developmental activities including mining projects.

• Specific act for the Environment called Environmental Management Act (Chapter 20 :27 of 2003) and related Statutory Instruments designed to manage the environment in a sustainable manner.

Prescribed Activities

• All prescribed activities such as mining, irrigation and industry should undergo an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process.

• The E.I.A has to be approved by Environmental Management Agency.

Alluvial mining

• Alluvial mining is a prescribed activity thus need to undergo an EIA process.

• Alluvial mining in active rivers is banned. • Use of mercury in gold processing is being

discouraged inline with the Minamata convention.

Environmental Quality licensing

• There are environmental quality standards for all discharges/emissions.

• The enforcement of environmental quality standards are done through licensing.

Environmental Quality licensing

• The quality of effluent discharged into the environment by industries and mines is prescribed in the Effluent and Solid Waste Disposal Statutory Instrument 6 of 2007.

• A blue, green, amber and red class licenses are issued to any operation that discharges into the environment within the prescribed limits.

Emissions standards Emissions are within prescribed limits

9. Concluding Remarks

• Country conducive to discovery of world-class deposits

• Long history of mining dating back to pre-historic times.

• Nearly all minerals found in economic quantities • There has been little exploration outside known

deposits.

9. Concluding Remarks Continued

• With huge historical data on mineral occurrences, and usage of modern exploration techniques, the full potential is still to be realized.

• The future of the country as an exploration destination for several minerals is very bright.

• The legal framework for environmental conservation exists in Zimbabwe.

THANK YOU

TATENDA

SIYABONGA