Harare to re-capacitate quarry mining

Published: 11 September 2017

Harare City Council (HCC) has secured a loan of $4,5 million from a local bank for the re-capacitation of their quarry mine.

HCC acting Town Clerk Josephine Ncube said a board to run the affairs of the quarry was set up and will in the interim be run by former Works director Phillip-PFukwa.

Ncube said with the funding projections were to sell some of the quarry products to companies engaged to reconstruct the Beitbridge-Chirundu highway.

"Pfukwa who sits on the board has been instructed to put systems in place ahead of the management appointments.

"The board which is chaired by prominent banker Ben Gasurira is expected to immediately turn the entity into a profit making unit that not only produces materials for the city's road construction and rehabilitation but also sells to the public," she said.

Ncube said studies conducted at the site have shown that the quarry station still has a lifespan of over 60 years even when mining is done at maximum capacity.

The acting town clerk also assured employees at the station that their employment was secure as there were no plans to lay off any employees.

During a tour of road rehabilitation earlier-PFukwa told the Daily News that the quarry mine had been operating at only 30 percent due to lack of repairs and maintenance.

He said if operations were to shut down, several cities and towns would be affected as they get their road construction materials from Harare.

In August 2016 business committee minutes, council noted that the plant which sits on 100 hectares of land produces granite rock.

The minutes state that Harare began exploiting the granite deposits in the 1940s and the plant is the ‘life blood' of council's road network construction and maintenance works.

"The plant is into three sections; crusher plant includes the quarry pit and production of crushed stone, with the majority of the product going for use on the city road construction.

"These stone aggregates are in various sizes: quarry dust, 6.7mm Stone, 13mm Stone, 19mm Stone, crusher run.

"Asphalt Plant is for the production of premix, it mixes hot and cold asphalt concrete mix (bitumen and stone aggregate) used for road maintenance, e.g. pothole patching, sealing and surfacing.

"Concrete products casting yard is involved with manufacturing of concrete product building materials for example bricks and interlocking blocks for road construction, slabs, kerbing, main hole and catch pit covers," read part of the minutes.
- dailynews

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