Maamba mine ups production

[Laf1986]

HE newly acquired Maamba Coal mine Wash Plant has seen the company increasing its coal production from 30,000 to 80,000 tonnes per month.

Company Resident Director Ashwin Devineni disclosed this at a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday.

Mr Devineni said the new coal Wash Plant procured at the cost of US $20 million is also technologically superior and restricts environmental pollution.

He further said the new state-of-the-art equipment has also enabled the company to restart selling its coal products to the local customers and the foreign market on a large scale.

The new Wash Plant was commissioned in April this year after the old machinery proved to be a threat to the environment by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) prior to the new management’s takeover of the company in 2010.

“With the coming of the new machinery we have quenched the fires that were an environmental hazard through covering of old waste dumps which were burning and polluting the environment, “he said.

Mr Devineni added that through this new achievement the company will also be committing a sum of US$3 dollars per every tonne processed of washed coal to cooperate social responsibility projects such as irrigation, water harvesting, livestock development, small scale mining among others.

He said so far, the company has spent about K3 billion in social infrastructures such as school desks, recreational and sporting infrastructure, repairs to the community water treatment plant, Maamba market foot bridge construction among others.

Meanwhile Mr Devineni has appealed to Government to consider constructing permanent bridges in Maamba area saying the current temporary ones are too weak and are frequently washed away during the rainy season.

He said the bad state of the roads in the area has had a negative impact on the smooth transportation of deliveries to project sites.

Mr Devineni has further called on the Government to engage the Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ) to revise the railing rates as the current ones are too high for the transportation of the commodity to neighboring countries.

Mamba Coal Mine is being run by Nava Bahart of Singapore and mines coal for the local and export markets and has a total workforce of 641 employees. Times/ZANIS