No editorial checks on this article yet

This article is not approvedThe content of this article is not verified by the editorial team of Africanews.com. Read our editorial requirements to see the criteria we use to decide if we publish an article on the homepage of Africanews.

Hwange Colliery Refurbishes Coke oven

  1. Posted on Monday 11 October 2010 - 15:13
    ronny zikhali
    Zimbabwe’s sole coal miner, Hwange Colliery Company Limited’s coke oven battery which has been undergoing corrective maintenance over the last four months is expected to produce its first coke consignment next week, an official said.
    The coal mining giant’s corporate affairs manager, Mr Burzil Dube said the thirty two oven battery has been undergoing a heat-up process to raise temperatures through various phases and twenty-three of them were already charging yesterday.
    Coking is a cash cow for the HCCL with coking coal sales accounting for half of its revenue.
    “The twenty three ovens that were being heated at sequences using coking coal are expected to be producing coke tomorrow after undergoing heating for 24 hours and we are expecting work on the remaining nine to be completed soon. This will mean that we will be able to serve all our traditional market efficient as well as exploring g other market since coke is the biggest contributor of HCCL’s revenue,” Mr Dube said.
    The heating up process phases included cobble firing, ceramic welding, stabilisation and oven charging.
    Ceramic wielding started on 8 August and will last for nine days. Ceramic welding is a technology employed to seal joints or cracks in special coke oven refractory bricks. The joints emanate from the interface of old bricks and the new bricks used for the recent bricks.
    Stabilisation of temperatures with liquefied petroleum gas will then take place over 48 hours before coke production takes place.
    The corrective maintenance that was being undertaken on the oven battery had a negative impact on the production of coke which is mainly used in smelting, metallurgical and foundry industries.
    In the first month of production the ovens will be able to produce a minimum of 8 000 tonnes of coke. At full capacity, the battery produces about 18 000 tonnes of coke.

Latest News

  1. OPINION: Welcome to African Green Revolution24/05For the past century and a half, Africa has tried various agricultural approaches without much success.
  2. Egyptians vote in historic election23/05Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who serv…
  3. Africa Day 2012 - a moment for reflection and…22/0525th May is Africa Day. For many years it has been a celebration of African unity. It dates back to 1963 when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) …
  4. South Africa's African agenda21/05The Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Kgalema Mothlanthe paid a rare visit to Ghana in April at the invitation of John Dramani Mahama …
  5. Women struggle to rinse hunger, poverty stains21/05Just looking at her one clearly appreciates that she is old and frail therefore in need of support for food, clothing and shelter to live comfortably …
  6. Climate Climate change affects migratory birds…21/05Changes in the climate globally have affected the movement of both migratory and resident species of birds, Nature Uganda has said.
  7. Kenya: Community radio brings succour to…18/05Korogocho, a slum in northeastern Nairobi with 100,000 inhabitants, had many of the ingredients for a political explosion similar to those that rocked…
  8. Veld fires 'flame' Zimbabwe's…16/05Over the years, Zimbabwe has experienced the scourge of veld fires destroying property worth thousands of dollars.
  9. Liberia commends ECOWAS for support14/05The induction training of pioneer Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Volunteers for Liberia kicked off in Monrovia, with the Deputy Mi…
  10. Vanishing Lake Chad puts 30m lives at risk14/05As you approach the Lake Chad basin from Maiduguri, in north-eastern Nigeria, the evidence of despair is telling.
  11. Heavy rains cause havoc in Kenya14/05Heavy Rainfall continued to wreak havoc across the country leading to the suspension of relief food in some parts of the country as most roads in Turk…
  12. Zimbabwe: Growth points lie dormant14/05The Zimbabwean government mooted the concept of growth points in the 1980s as a means of decongesting cities and towns.
  13. Sierra Leone improves in infant mortality11/05Sierra Leone has improved in infant mortality cases according to Save the Children- World Motherhood index 2012 report. The West Africa country descri…
  14. Zimbabwe: Resettled farmers fail to utilize…10/05Resettled farmers in Zimbabwe are failing to utilize land due to inadequate farming inputs and lack of resources.
  15. Algerians vote in parliamentary election10/05Polls have opened in Algeria for parliamentary elections which the authorities have billed as more free and transparent than ever before.
News archive