Caledonia Mining's 12MW solar plant comes online t...

Caledonia Mining's 12MW solar plant comes online to provide 27% daily demand

Caledonia Mining Corp PLC announced that its new solar power plant at the Blanket Mine in southern Zimbabwe started to generate power on Monday.

Construction started late in 2021 for the 12 megawatt facility. It is expected that it will provide around 27% of Blanket Mine's average daily electricity demand.

"With 21 per cent of Blanket's on-mine costs relating to energy usage, this solar plant is a very important project for the company as it will improve the quality and security of Blanket's electricity supply and provide environmental benefits through cleaner energy," said Chief Executive Officer Mark Learmouth.

"The solar power will displace more expensive power from the grid and from the diesel generators and is expected to reduce Caledonia's consolidated cost per ounce of gold produced by approximately USD37."

Blanket Mine currently receives its power from the national electricity supplier ZESA, which has been subject to load-shedding and unstable power in recent years.

Zimbabwe has a supply shortage of over 600MW and as the mining sector grows and industry capacity utilisation go up, demand continues to outstrip supply.

This has caused economic and safety issues for the underground gold mine, requiring supplementary power from diesel generators during outages or low voltages. Diesel-generated electricity is expensive, alongside concerns of environmental footprint.

Shares in Caledonia Mining fell by 0.7% to 1,000.00 pence in London on Monday afternoon.