Zimbabwe Mining

A historic gold mine, about two hours north of Harare in Zimbabwe has been operating for over 100 years.

On site are not only the mining operation but also the complete processing of the ore, to produce the final product GOLD.

There are a five deep shafts leading down to drifts at up to three kilometres underground, the ore brought up from below is mixed with water to form an emulsion and through various processes the heaver gold falls out and is collected. They are producing approximately 13kg of gold every week.

With men working underground and the extraction of the gold from the ore being a continuous process, it is important that the mine has a reliable power supply. Although classed as a priority customer by the Zimbabwean Electricity Company there is still a risk of mains electricity outages. To keep the power on the mine has a series of standby generating sets.

They have on site a 250kVA, four 600kVA and eight 500kVA (four delivered in 2019) Powered by Scania diesel generating sets built by AJ Power. The sets are positioned at various sites around the mine area.

There is also a mixture of voltages with the majority being 600volts 3 phase. Some units are in blocks of 2 units synchronised with each other, to allow for one set to be turned off when the load demand is lower.

The Scania powered diesel generator was installed in 2015, since then the sets have averaged 330 hours running per year. The mine have a team of engineers and technicians on site to ensure that the sets will run whenever required, regular maintenance is carried out, plus our partner in the region is always available with their knowledge of the Scania product.

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