Published: 21 October 2013

Ferrochrome producer, Zimbabwe Alloys Chrome Limited yesterday said it produced 2 000 metric tonnes of the metal in the first nine months of the year.

The mining firm's shareholders this year injected $1 million towards extraction of chrome from waste products.

Zimalloys effectively ceased operations at the height of the hyperinflation era in 2008 and resumed mining last year as use of multiple foreign currencies reduced production costs.

The mining firm has one of the oldest chrome smelting plants in Africa, which was built in 1949.

Zim Alloys finance director Mr Munyaradzi Dube said the company was producing between 200 and 250 metric tonnes of chrome per month.

"From January to September this year, we produced 2 000 metric tonnes of metal. We have just partnered a local company Special Metallurgical Processing which is offering us the latest technological equipment to extract metal and we hope in the next six months or so production will be doubling," he said.

The company last year failed to secure a $60 million loan from the Global Emerging Markets (GEM) which it had applied for to pay off debts and reconstruct furnaces.

Mr Dube said the company was still negotiating with potential investors to revamp mining operations.

- New Ziana

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