Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: Lithium miner scales up Zim ambition | Daily News

Premier African Minerals says it is scaling up activities in Zimbabwe with the resumption of drilling at its lithium assets at Fort Rixon near Bulawayo.

The Aim quoted resources firm is one of at least three firms that are actively pursuing lithium opportunities in Zimbabwe, where government hopes to turn around its flagging fortunes by exploiting vast mineral claims to restock drying up foreign exchange reserves.

The firm wholly-owns the Zulu Lithium, which also has interests in tantalum.
Another key miner, Prospect, announced last week that its Acadia reserves near Harare had been given Special Economic Zone status.

The firm said in a statement last week that mobilisation will begin immediately, with drilling kicking in immediately thereafter.

Seasonal rains in Zimbabwe will also determine how drilling will be done, Premier noted.
KME Plant Hire, has been appointed as drilling contractor, according to the statement.
“It is gratifying to finally be able to report a return to real value-generative operations,” said Premier chief executive officer George Roach.

“With the recently announced term sheet in regard to KME, drilling activities at Zulu are likely to proceed at a much-reduced overall cost,” he said.

The project has an estimated 20,1 million tonnes resource base grading 1,06 percent lithium oxide.
The drilling programme will follow the recommendations identified in a definitive feasibility study work programme and will focus on expanding both the size and confidence of the current South African Code for the Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves-compliant resource at Zulu, as well as the generation of geotechnical and hydrological data for the pit shell designs and future mine construction.

The statement said as previously announced on February 14, Premier has agreed to amended conditional terms to acquire 50 percent shareholding in KME.
It said the budget for the initial drilling programme, including mobilisation, is about
$400 000.

On Tuesday last week, Premier issued about 212,41 million new ordinary shares at an issue price of 0,145p apiece to KME as prepayment for mobilisation and drilling.
Lithium has emerged as one of the most sought after minerals used in the production of batteries.

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Source: Forex shortages hit councils. . . as they run short of chemicals | Daily News

If government does not prioritise the provision of foreign currency to local authorities for the procurement of water treatment chemicals, many councils will be forced to stop pumping water, Urban Councils Association (Ucaz) president Josiah Makombe said.

In an interview with the Daily News yesterday, Makombe said many councils had now run out of water treatment chemicals and this was now posing a health threat to citizens.

Makombe’s statement comes as Bulawayo and Harare last week ran out of water treatment chemicals and had to increase their water rationing to allow residents access to water twice a week.

“This is a very worrisome issue and if not solved people will definitely get sick from typhoid, cholera and other waterborne diseases. We have tried to engage government on the matter but nothing seems to be working. They seem to forget that we are the people’s first port-of-call due to our service delivery mandate,” Makombe said.

“The problem is that fuel has been given priority over everything else. However, one cannot drive with a clear conscience when they do not have access to clean water or when sewer is flowing through the streets.

“Local authorities need foreign currency every week for chemicals. If the current problem persists, council will have no other option but to stop pumping water because people cannot drink raw untreated water.”

He emphasised that as councils foreign currency availability is very scarce and comes after long intervals.

“We may get access to the foreign currency here and there but that is not enough for the services that we provide. We cannot go to the black market and buy foreign currency. Also because we are an extension of government we cannot charge our customers in foreign currency. We get our revenue in bond and RTGS dollars which however cannot buy the chemicals,” the Gweru mayor said.

Makombe said Ucaz will be meeting with the minister of Local Government July Moyo to discuss these and other issues that are making service delivery a struggle.

Latest reports from Bulawayo’s council minutes show that the city is running critically low on ammonia with stocks of less than one month.

“Aluminium sulphate, HTH stocks are enough for over two months. Chlorine is at critical one week supply,” read part of the minutes.

In Harare, town clerk Hosiah Chisango confirmed that Harare City Council had run out of liquid and granular aluminium, lime and HTH with only 25 cubic of aluminium sulphate in stock.

While all chemicals are important in the purification process, aluminium sulphate should not run out as it is a critical component in ensuring optimum microbiological quality of water as it kills bacteria and viruses.

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Police have confirmed that William Chandler – the senior pilot from South African Airways (SAA) who had flown commercial airplanes for more than 20 years with a fake licence – has been arrested. South Africa national police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo said Chandler was arrested on Monday. He was charged with fraud, and appeared in the […]

Source: Harare-Beitbridge fibre-optic Internet cable stirs to life | Daily News

Zimbabwe will secure its latest fibre optic connection to the outside world tomorrow, with the official launch of the Harare-Chivhu-Masvingo-Beitbridge Internet link completing the connection of the country to all the major borders.

The $98 million project, to be officially launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa tomorrow in Beitbridge, caps the latest laying of a fibre optic network across Zimbabwe that should allow the southern Africa country to connect a bigger percentage of its population to the Internet, boosting economic growth, the ICT minister Kazembe Kazembe, pictured, told journalists just after officially opening an ongoing high-level International

Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Victoria Falls yesterday.
Zimbabwean fixed mobile converged telecom service provider, TelOne, began work over two years ago on the latest stage of a bigger national ring network — a 500km cable running from the north to the south of the country from the capital, Harare to Beitbridge.

“What the president will be commissioning is the link between Harare and Beitbridge, it’s a link between Harare and South Africa if you like. It’s very critical in the sense that it makes us an ICT hub of the southern part of Africa. And in fact, just the deployment of that link has seen a reduction in broadband costs by up to 40 percent, from what I get from TelOne. So, it is indeed a milestone in ensuring that everyone is connected. That link is long overdue,” Kazembe said.

The Beitbridge cable is scheduled to be up and running tomorrow. He said the project will deliver broadband Internet to Zimbabweans’ doorstep at high speed and cheaper costs. When the project is fully operational, the cable will provide download speeds thousands times faster than Zimbabwe’s current Internet and be capable of handling millions of phone calls simultaneously.
Up until recently, Zimbabwe has linked to the Internet through satellite hook-ups that are excruciatingly slow and expensive.

“The prices have to come down. They have to because if the costs are reduced, definitely we expect that at the end of the day, the end user would also benefit,” Kazembe said.
“No more slow connectivity. Now you have the fibre optic. It’s the fastest medium of transfer of data,” he said, adding he was gunning to have the whole country on fibre optic.

“Indeed, it will reach to all the people across the country, not just the people in the south, but it’s for everybody because it then completes the link, that ring. No one will be left behind,” he said.
Kazembe said fibre optic cables were already laid in most parts of Zimbabwe with the Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls link already up, the Gweru-Bulawayo-Plumtree link completed as well as the Harare-Mutare-Forbes Border Post link that is connected to undersea cables operated by Seacom, they run along the east African coastline linking Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya with Europe and Asia.

The 14 000km-long cable sunk into the ocean bed is one of five major undersea cables that have had a dramatic impact in accelerating Africa’s access to international bandwidth in the past five years.
“We are well connected now to all the borders. We are now connected to the undersea cable in the Indian ocean,” he said.

Kazembe said the latest last mile leg of fibre optic under the “Optical Fibre National Transmission Backbone” would enhance Zimbabweans’ communications
after government in 2016 accessed a $98m loan facility from the China Exim Bank.

Zimbabwe has been moving from wholly being reliant on highly expensive satellite bandwidth for Internet connections, and hopes cheaper and fast Internet can boost the country’s economic growth.
Kazembe said work had just been completed on the latest phase of the project, and the final stage of construction will connect Makuti and Chirundu — a town at the border with Zimbabwe.
He said “preliminary works have been done and that is being spearheaded by TelOne.”

Kazembe said the cables would reduce the digital divide in Zimbabwe between rural and urban areas.
The Universal Services Fund, which receives revenues from a tax on telephone operators’ revenues, will finance the reach of telecom facilities to so-called marginalised places.

The government also hopes by increasing access to market information, the fibre optic project will facilitate trade by allowing farmers in rural communities to remain informed on prices in international commodities markets.

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Source: Gudyanga, Chidakwa's separation of trial rejected | Daily News

The State has objected to the separation of former Mines minister Walter Chidakwa and Civil Service Commission permanent secretary Francis Pedzana Gudyanga’s trials in a case they are
alleged to have misappropriated $29 000 in board sitting allowances.

Gudyanga’s lawyer Norman Mugiya had requested for the separation after the High Court issued an interdict for stay of proceedings in the lower courts pending hearing of an application of review of proceedings filed by Chidakwa.

Mugiya had argued that his client would be prejudiced by delays necessitated Chidakwa’s appeals and sought to be tried separately.

However, prosecutor Michael Chakandida objected to separation of the trials before the matter was remanded to March 15.

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