MWELASE MINING AVAILS INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

MBABANE – A multi-million Emalangeni investment by Mwelase Mining Eswatini (Pty) Ltd into the defunct Ngwenya Mine is expected to bring hundreds of jobs and investment opportunities.

The approved project requires workforce of about 460 staff and operations require an estimated use of 20 trucks in operation and five trucks as spare, totalling to 25 trucks per month. Mwelase Mining Eswatini proposed operations were planned with a production capacity of 100 000 metric tonnes (MT) per month. An environmental Impact Assessment report has already been done and authorities have granted the full mining licence to a new investor, Mwelase Mining Eswatini (Pty) Ltd.

Proposing

The company was proposing to resume operations of mining the iron ore at Ngwenya, which was previously operated by the liquidated Salgaocar Swaziland Pty Ltd.According to the report, Salgaocar Swaziland Pty Ltd went into liquidation in 2014 when the mineral commodities prices declined.
The mining activity will bring forth jobs during its operations, the report stated that priority will be given to the old employees of the mine followed by Ngwenya locals. Mwelase Mining Eswatini (Pty) Ltd is proposing a sealed down production of 1.2 million MT per annum for the first three years of road transportation, instead of the full scale operations of two million MT per annum. “Full scale operations are anticipated to be implemented after construction of a rail line,” said the report. However, in the first year, the production will be restricted to a maximum of 600 000 tonnes.These proposed operations according to the report, could achieve only low medium grade product of 60 to 62 per cent Concentrate Grade (Fe).

Dumps

“The ongoing activity of processing the dumps is producing new waste dumps of rejection material also consisting of Fe content of 49 per cent to 35 per cent, which under mineral conservation cannot be rejected and stockpiled for future beneficiation,” mentions the report.As per the norm, interested and affected parties are requested to submit comments/and or objections as the Environmental Audit, Assessment and Review Regulations 2000.
The submissions are to be directed to the Eswatini Environment Authority in Mbabane. The e-mail address is ceosec@sea.org.sz.

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