Hwange Colliery machinery goes under hammer over unpaid debts

Mining equipment worth millions of dollars belonging to the struggling coal miner Hwange Colliery Company (HCC) is set to go under the hammer on Tuesday over unpaid debts to various creditors.

Hwange District Deputy Sheriff said in a notice yesterday that it would be selling the company’s movable assets at a public auction to be held in the town on Tuesday.

The cases pitying Hwange Colliery with Wiltshire Explosives (Pvt) Ltd, Renaisance Merchant Bank, Shepco Industrial Supplies and one Themba Sibanda will see the company’s machinery including six front-end loaders, seven vehicles, cranes, excavators, trailers, dozers among other properties going under the hammer.

The developments are coming just after the company had secured the new machinery under a government-facilitated vendor financed scheme through the PTA-BELAZ facility and BEML.

The deal saw the colliery receiving 10 dump trucks, five front-end loaders and two wheel dozers from BELAZ of Belarus while two excavators, two water bowsers, three front-end loaders, three bulldozers, three drill rigs, a motor grader and one tyre handler were supplied by Indian firm, BEML.

In September, the company reported it had widened its half year losses by more than 90 percent to $15.6 million as sales plummeted.

Hwange is facing litigation for claims amounting to $20.6 million while cases worth $20.1 million been awarded against it.- The Source

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