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1. By Tawanda Musarurwa
HARARE -Hwange Colliery
Company says it plans to
commence beneficiation of its
main coal product into sev-
eral value added products,
managing director Mr Thomas
Makore has said.
Mr Makore said the benefici-
ation plans will significantly
benefit Zimbabwe's energy
sector.
"As part of our own ZimAsset
contribution we want to ben-
eficiate coal into a final prod-
uct and the final product can
either be coal or coke peas,
nuts and cobbles, or it can be
electricity. Now when you con-
vert coal into electricity that
is value addition because we
use electricity in our homes
and we use electricity in our
industries. "So when we sell coal yes we
are selling it as a final product
News Update as @ 1530 hours, Friday 12 February 2016
Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw
Hwange eyes coal beneficiation, value addition

2. and better still it can be sold
as electricity," he said speak-
ing at a ZimAsset Conference
this afternoon.
Currently, almost all the raw
coal mined in the country
is used internally, after the
product has been beneficiated
to levels required by the cur-
rent targeted user.
He said the company was cur-
rently in the process of look-
ing into producing coal-bed
and coal-mine methane.
"In terms of specific areas
that we are doing projects in
line with value addition and
in line with ZimAsset we are
busy with studies and explora-
tion on coal-bed methane and
coal-mine methane.
"These gases can be used for
domestic cooking gas, and you
can also use the same gases
to generate power so that's
another value addition project
that we are looking at.
"We also want to resuscitate
our coke oven battery, which
stopped because of age and
operational reasons. This
coke oven battery allows us to
make coke that is used in the
steel and ferrochrome indus-
try.
"It also produces coke oven
gas, which means the boil-
ers at ZPC don't have to use
diesel to fire up, they can use
this gas and therefore they
do not have to use diesel and
then we get by-products from
this coke oven battery such
as benthol and tar products,
which we supply to ZimChem
for the manufacture of paint
products," said Mr Makore.
In an earlier study by the
Chamber of Mines Zimbabwe,
the institution said locally pro-
duced coal, with the exception
of Hwange coal, is low in value
and distances from source to
utility or coal energy utilising
centres is relatively long.
To this extent said the Cham-
ber of Mines "coal consists
of fractions of good quality
material mixed with mineral
impurities and harmful sub-
stances like sulphur and mer-
cury. This makes it imperative
to beneficiate the coal either
before delivery to the market
or before utilisation.●
2 news
Mr Thomas Makore

3. BH243

4. HARARE – ASA Resource Group
(formerly Mwana Africa) says
cost control measures and
improved production efficiencies
at its operations in Zimbabwe
resulted in enhanced production
during the third quarter ended
December 31 last year.
ASA owns and operates Freda
Rebecca Gold Mine and Trojan
Nickel Mine in Zimbabwe.
In a production update, ASA
chief executive Mr Yat Hoi Ning
said both operations registered
increased production despite a
challenging business environ-
ment.
“With the ongoing improvements
put in place by management, our
businesses are slowly but surely
showing good progress on all
levels,” he said.
During the quarter, Freda Rebec-
ca’s gold sales rose by 2.4 per-
cent to 18 506 ounces with the
increase being attributed to
improvements in feed grade and
recoveries.
Cash costs were reduced by 5.6
percent in the quarter under
review to $820 per ounce while
all-in sustaining costs were
reduced by three percent to
$988 per ounce.
“We endeavor to continue with
our rolling plan at Freda Rebecca,
as it continues to yield positive
results,” Yat said.
At Trojan, nickel concentrate
production increased 10 percent
to 1 584 tons while nickel sales
grew 5. 6 percent to 1 577 tons
at an average net price of $6 121
per ton.
Improved nickel concentrate
production was primarily due
to an increase in average head
grade and recoveries achieved
by mining more of the higher
grade ore reserves.
Mr Yat said the New Year also
started off well, with results in
January promising and encour-
aging.
“Trojan had a good start in the
year. Despite experiencing a lost
week at the start of the month
our nickel production was close
to the target of 644 tonnes, only
short by 33 tons in terms of pro-
duction targets.
“It is expected that the call
for the last quarter will be met
due primarily to operational
improvements which will result
in reduced underground power
interruptions, resolution of
compressed air shortages and
increased access to dump trucks,
enhancing the development pace
and hence increased access to
high grade ore,” he said.
“At Freda Rebecca in January
2016 there was an improvement
in gold production during the
month resulting in 5,769 ounces
being produced (Dec 2015 –
5,688 ounces) at an average
realized price of $1,109/ ounce.”
Mr Yat said power supply
remained a major disruption fac-
tor but counter measures were
being put in place starting this
month.
“In the meantime, our cost con-
trol measures shall continue in
order to optimise the perfor-
mance of the mines. I remain
confident that this pattern of
steady improvement will persist
until operating tar targets are
reached,” he said.-New Ziana●
4 news
Freda Rebecca and BNC record increased production

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6. By Funny Hudzerema
HARARE - Government has
started to conducting aware-
ness campaigns to promote
the installation of solar water
heaters in residential areas to
mitigate against power short-
ages in the country
The programme is expected to
see the replacement of elec-
tric geysers with solar water
heaters. Government is plan-
ning to install and retrofit 250
000 solar geysers over the
next five years.
In a statement secretary for
energy and power develop-
ment Partson Mbiriri said
the programme will increase
awareness on the advantages
of using solar waters heaters.
“Zimbabwe is one of the many
southern countries adversely
affected by power shortages
so much that saving power
becomes a priority.
“The awareness team under
the national solar water heat-
ing programme, comprising
of 30 members is planning on
charring a door to door cam-
paign,” he said.
Studies carried out have
shown that 40 percent of elec-
tricity consumed in the home
goes to water heating.
“If solar water heaters are
installed on all houses the
saving on electricity con-
sumption can be directed to
other productive sectors of
the economy.
“Research has shown that
solar water heaters save
money at house hold level,
reduce power consumption at
national level and are envi-
ronmentally friendly,” he said.
National power demand was
currently estimated at about
2 200 MW against available
generation capacity of around
1 200 MW and installed capac-
ity of 1 960 MW.●
6 news
Government rolls out solar water heater campaign

7. BH247

8. HARARE - The Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has
licensed the third micro-fi-
nance bank (MFB) in the
country as it seeks to widen
options for the banking public
and encourage savings.
The central bank upgraded the
license of microfinance insti-
tution Collarhedge Finance to
an MFB. At the same time last
year, the RBZ licensed Afri-
can Century Limited as the
country’s first ever MFB, after
which it licensed Getbucks
Financial Services in August
2015.
“The entrance of more play-
ers in the financial sector
bodes well for efforts aimed
at promoting the deepening
of financial markets,” the RBZ
said.
The earlier licensed MFBs
commenced operations this
January while Collarhedge is
still getting its house in order
in line with its new mandate.
Licensing of MFBs, which have
less stricter requirements
than commercial banks, is
expected to improve access
to financial services by peo-
ple in lower income groups.
The RBZ announced inten-
tions to license MFBs in 2013
but there had not been any
takers until 2015 as cap-
ital constraints prevented
MFIs from upgrading their
licenses. Micro-finance banks
are required to have a mini-
mum capital threshold of $5
million.
Experts in the MFIs sector
say some of the institutions
are not keen to upgrade their
licenses to avoid increased
scrutiny by the central bank.
According to the apex bank,
there were 155 registered
MFIs at the end of last year.
MFBs, which are referred to
in some countries as “bank-
ing for the poor”, are popular
and are flourishing in coun-
tries such as Nigeria where
over 700 are in operation.
MFBs are known for being the
major players in supporting
the informal sector as well as
small to medium enterprises,
which in the case of Zimba-
bwe has become the “new”
economy. - New Ziana●
8 news
RBZ registers third microfinance bank

9. HARARE - The local bourse's
losses over the week out-
weighed the earlier gains as
the mainstream industrial
index lost 0.83 (or 0,82 per-
cent) on a week-on-week
basis.
Following today's trades, the
industrial index closed the
week on a low note following
a 0.19 loss to settle at 100.84
as AFDIS lost $0,0200 to trade
at $0,4800 while crocodile
skin producer Padenga was
$0,0050 weaker at $0,0600.
No counter traded in the posi-
tive territory.
But beverages giant Delta,
Fidelity Life, Old Mutual
and TSL were unchanged at
$0,5250, $0,0950, $1,8000
and $0,1350 in that order.
The mining index shed 0.79 to
close at 100.84 after Bindura
retreated $0,0010 to trade at
$0,0090.
Gold producer Falgold, Hwange
and RioZim maintained previ-
ous price levels at $0,0050,
$0,0300 and $0,1040, respec-
tively.
Week-on-week, the mining
index retreated 0.79 (or 4,05
percent). - BH24 Reporter
●
ZSE9
Industrial, mining indices close week on a low
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10. Movers CHANGE Today Price USc SHAKERS Change TODAY Price USc
Bindura -10.00 0.90
Padenga -7.69 6.00
AFDIS -4.00 48.00
Index Previous Today Move Change
Industrial 101.03 100.84 -0.19 points -0.19%
Mining 19.53 18.74 -0.79 points -4.05%
10 zse tables
ZSE
Indices
Stock Exchange
Previous
02 03
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11. 11 DIARY OF EVENTS
The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.
POWER GENERATION STATS
Gen Station
12 February 2016
Energy
(Megawatts)
Hwange 549 MW
Kariba 285 MW
Harare 19 MW
Munyati 28 MW
Bulawayo 0 MW
Imports 0 - 350 MW
Total 1275 MW
—18 February 2016 - 70th Annual General Meeting of the members of CAFCA ; Place: Boardroom at the company’s registered office
at 54 Lytton Road, Workington, Harare; Time: 12:00 hours
—23 February 2015 - 38th Annual General Meeting of the members of Powerspeed Electrical Limited; Place: Powerspeed Board-
room, Gate 1, Powerspeed Complex, Corner Cripps Road and Kelvin Road North, Graniteside, Harare; Time: 1100 hours
25 February 2016 - Extraordinary General Meeting (“EGM”) of the Shareholders of Radar Holdings Limited; Place: Tanganyika
House, 6th Floor Boardroom, Harare; Time: 0900 hours...
25 February 2016 - The 49th Annual General Meeting of Mashonaland Holdings Limited; Place: The Boardroom, 19th Floor, ZB Life
Towers, 77 Jason Moyo Avenue, Harare; Time: 1200 hours...
26 February 2016 - The Sixty-ninth Annual General Meeting of Ariston Holdings Limited; Place: Ariston Holdings Limited Main
Boardroom, 306 Hillside Road, Msasa Woodlands, Harare: Time: 14.30 hours:
THE BH24 DIARY

12. JOHANNESBURG - THE rand
was firmer at midday today
amid a weaker dollar environ-
ment. Investors recently sold
the greenback after remarks
by US Federal Reserve chair-
woman Janet Yellen that
global economic growth con-
cerns could result in the Fed’s
holding back on further inter-
est rate increases this year.
At 11.34am the rand was
at 15,7594 against the dol-
lar from a previous close of
15,8571.
Against the euro, the rand
was at 17,7859 from 17,9284
and was at 22,9153 against
the pound from 22,8880 pre-
viously.
The euro was at $1,1286 from
$1,1321 previously.
TreasuryOne chief currency
dealer Wichard Cilliers said
the rand staged a strong rally
on Thursday before President
Jacob Zuma’s state of the
nation address. However, the
rally could have been attrib-
uted to Ms Yellen’s conceding
that the Fed was evaluating
the possibility of negative
interest rates, as they would
want to be prepared in the
event that it was needed for
added accommodation, he
said.
"This sounds like doomsday
prepping, but if you take a
look at the continual slump
in global equities, it looks
as if markets themselves are
starting to price in a sharp
slowdown in the global econ-
omy and even a recession in
the US," Mr Cilliers said.
Rand and emerging market
gains were teetering back
and forth. Bad news for the
US weakens the dollar and
helps the rand become firmer,
but if sentiment gets too neg-
ative, risk currencies suffer
and the rand gives back all of
its gains, Mr Cilliers said.
There is a fine line and the
swings are volatile and
aggressive, with a 40c spread
between the high and low of
the day becoming the new
norm.
The rand looked set to defy
conventional wisdom on Fri-
day and continue to move
stronger, despite the worry
over the global climate and
a lack of credibility follow-
ing the state of the nation
address, Mr Cilliers said.-
BDLive●
regioNAL News12
Rand firms as dollar weakens

13. SINGAPORE — Gold today
clung to sharp overnight gains
that pushed the metal to a
one-year high, and looked set
to post its best week in more
than four years as stock mar-
ket turmoil stoked safe haven
demand.
Asian shares slid as mount-
ing concern about the health
of European banks further
threatened a global economic
outlook. MSCI’s global stock
index closed more than 20
percent below its record high,
while safe-haven assets shone
across the board.
US 10-year Treasury yields hit
their lowest since 2012 and the
yen climbed to its highest in
15 months against the dollar,
while money continued to flow
into gold-backed exchange-
traded funds (ETFs).
Spot gold rose to $1 260,60
on Thursday, its highest in
a year, before paring some
gains to close up 4 percent in
its biggest daily gain in about
two-and-a-half years. On Fri-
day it eased 0,9 percent to $1
235,85 by 3.35am GMT.
"We are seeing a flight to
quality," said a Sydney-based
trader. "ETFs have been accu-
mulating the metal for some
time now. They are one of the
main drivers (of the gold rally)
along with the equity markets
which are extremely soft."
Assets in SPDR Gold Trust,
the world’s top gold ETF, rose
2 percent on Thursday, the
biggest inflow in two months.
Total holdings of the top
eight gold ETFs have risen
by 3,8-million ounces so far
this year, after three straight
years of decline.
The risk-off sentiment has
made gold the best-perform-
ing commodity in 2016, ANZ
said, while others predicted
further gains. Yuichi Ikemizu
at Standard Bank in Tokyo said
"$1 300 would be possible if
stocks don’t stop falling".
Jeffrey Gundlach, co-founder
and CEO of DoubleLine Cap-
ital, said gold was likely to
reach $1 400 as investors lost
faith in central banks. For the
week, spot gold is up 5,5 per-
cent, the biggest weekly gain
since October 2011.
US gold futures are set to post
a gain of nearly 7 percent for
the week, the sharpest such
jump since 2008.
Also helping gold were dovish
comments from US Federal
Reserve chairwoman Janet
Yellen, who stressed that the
US central bank was not on a
"preset" path to return policy
to "normal" amid a worsening
meltdown in global stock mar-
kets.
Though Ms Yellen said she still
expected the Fed to gradu-
ally raise rates this year, fed-
eral funds rate futures have
almost completely priced out
the chance of a rate hike.
Platinum was down $6,64 or
0,7 percent at $949,85 and
palladium lost $2,62 or 0,5
percent to $518,83.-Reu-
ters●
internatioNAL News13
Gold holds strong overnight gains, has biggest weekly rise in more than four years

14. IKE Hearn, a British computer pro-
grammer, holed up in his two-bed-
room apartment in Zurich over
several days and nights this month,
writing a cri de coeur.
Two years ago, Hearn quit a cushy
programming job at Google’s Swiss
offices to devote himself full time to
his great passion: the virtual currency
bitcoin.
He was one of a handful of developers
in the world dedicated to maintaining
the basic software that governs the
creation of new bitcoins and the net-
work on which the financial transac-
tions take place.
But a nasty fight has torn apart the
small brotherhood of bitcoin devel-
opers and raised questions about
the survival of the virtual currency.
Hearn, until recently a prominent
leader of the bitcoin project, became
so disillusioned that in December he
sold his last few hundred bitcoins and
quietly took a job at a start-up.
HIS impassioned blog post was an
announcement that he was leaving:
"Bitcoin has gone from being a trans-
parent and open community to one
that is dominated by rampant cen-
sorship and attacks on bitcoiners by
other bitcoiners."
The dispute has exposed fundamen-
tal differences about the aims of
bitcoin and how online communities
should be governed. The two camps
have broadly painted each other
as, on one side, populists who are
focused on expanding bitcoin’s com-
mercial potential and, on the other
side, elitists who are more concerned
with protecting its status as a radical
challenger to existing currencies.
In the past six months, the divide
has led to death threats against bit-
coin developers and hacking attacks
that have taken down internet service
providers. These internal struggles
have surfaced as the bitcoin technol-
ogy is gaining credibility. Throughout
the controversies that have plagued
the virtual currency — including many
instances of theft and fraud — the
basic software has continued working
as expected.
That consistency has pushed the
value of all outstanding bitcoins to
more than $6bn and led many ven-
ture capitalists to imagine the tech-
nology as the future of finance, a
cheaper and faster way to carry out
financial transactions of all sorts.
Part of bitcoin’s appeal has been its
promise to provide a more reliable
and trustworthy alternative to exist-
ing currencies and financial networks.
Unlike the US Federal Reserve and
Wall Street, institutions managed by
humans, bitcoin was supposed to rest
on the infallible logic of maths and
computer code.
The current dispute, though, is a
reminder that the bitcoin software
is an evolving product of the human
mind, and its deployment is vulnera-
ble to human frailties and divergent
ideals.
GAVIN Andresen, a close collabora-
tor of Hearn’s and one of the long-
est-standing contributors to the
bitcoin software, says the dispute
is likely to cause disruptions in the
short term, but he disagrees with the
notion that it will damage bitcoin’s
long-term prospects.
Other bitcoin leaders express a sim-
ilar sentiment, and investors have
been inclined to believe them: the
price of a bitcoin has risen in recent
months, to about $430.
Some of Hearn’s allies hope the dead-
lock can be broken if the largest bit-
coin companies get behind Bitcoin
Classic, a new version of the basic
bitcoin software that was announced
this month and that aims to expand
the network’s capacity while also
introducing new standards of govern-
ance.
But Hearn is convinced it is too late.
"It never occurred to me that the
thing could just fall apart because
of people getting crazy and having
fundamental political disagreements
over the goals of the project," Hearn
says. "It’s really shaken my faith in
humanity."
Hearn, 31, grew up in Manchester,
England. He was one of the first seri-
ous programmers to take an interest
in bitcoin, in April 2009, a few months
after its mysterious founder, known
as Satoshi Nakamoto, let it loose.
Like many of the programmers who
took an early interest, Hearn admired
the rule-bound nature of the system.
Only 21-million bitcoins would ever
be created. And the distribution of
new bitcoins was clearly laid out, rely-
ing on mathematical algorithms that
left no room for human meddling.
Satoshi had written the software
containing these rules, but after it
14 analysis14 analysis
Bitcoin at risk as developers quarrel over system

15. 15 analysis15 analysis
was released, anyone could see the
code and make changes. The peo-
ple downloading this open-source
software voted on which changes to
accept based on which version of the
software they chose to use.
If Satoshi proposed changes they
didn’t like, they didn’t have to down-
load and run it, and anyone could
offer an alternative. Bitcoin, like
many other open-source projects,
was a sort of leaderless democracy
— a new way of governing human
behaviour online.
Hearn joined a small but growing
group of volunteers who worked on
the basic bitcoin software — the most
committed of whom became known
as the core developers. They met in
person only a handful of times, but
they would chat constantly online
and send e-mails discussing potential
changes.
The leader of this effort, after
Satoshi bowed out in 2011 (without
ever revealing a real identity), was
US-based Andresen, who kept every-
one on the same page.
THE bonhomie began to fall apart last
year because of what appeared to be
a positive development: the continu-
ing growth in the number of bitcoin
users and transactions.
The problem was that, early on,
Satoshi established a limit on the
number of transactions that could be
processed every 10 minutes. The cap
was meant to ensure that the com-
puters processing transactions would
not be overwhelmed.
But Satoshi had suggested that the
limit should be temporary, and as the
number of transactions inched closer
to the cap, delays started to occur and
transactions were not going through.
When Hearn began pushing for
changes to the core bitcoin software
to allow for larger blocks of trans-
action data, he faced resistance.
Gregory Maxwell, a largely self-
taught programmer who had worked
on Wikipedia and the Mozilla web
browser, said larger blocks of transac-
tion data would be harder for ordinary
computers to process. The result, he
warned, would be to hand control
over the network to big companies
that could afford powerful computers.
For Maxwell, slower transactions
seemed to be a secondary issue to
protecting bitcoin from centralised
sources of authority. Hearn retorted
that the technical issue wasn’t such
a big deal; ordinary computers could
mostly process the larger blocks of
data. More important, he argued, was
that bitcoin needed to succeed as a
cheaper, faster payment network,
such as PayPal or Visa.
If bitcoin wanted to compete with
mainstream payment systems that
could process thousands of trans-
actions a second, it would have to
do away with its limit of fewer than
seven transactions a second.
As the debate grew increasingly frac-
tious, friendships among the core
developers fell apart. Hearn and
Andresen decided last year that the
only way forward was to give the
vote to the people using the software.
They put together a version of the
software — largely the same as the
current software, but with an allow-
ance for more transactions — called
Bitcoin XT.
If a clear majority of the system’s
users downloaded the software, it
would become the new law of the
land — what is known in open-source
terminology as a fork.
The release of Bitcoin XT was viewed
by Maxwell as a betrayal. It was dem-
ocratic, but he said decisions about
the core software should be made by
technical experts — not by populist
campaigns.
Maxwell and his supporters tried to
engineer a compromise. They organ-
ised meetings in Montreal and Hong
Kong for leading developers to dis-
cuss ways to scale bitcoin. Andresen
went to the first, where Maxwell’s
allies announced a more gradual plan
for increasing network capacity. But
Andresen and Hearn felt the recom-
mendations didn’t go far enough.
Despite the discord, Hearn has not
lost faith in all of the ideas behind
bitcoin. The start-up in New York,
where he has taken a new job, R3,
is developing networks for banks to
enable cheaper and faster ways to
trade assets of all sorts.
This work lacks the purity of maintain-
ing bitcoin, but after months of sleep-
less nights, fretting about betrayed
promises, Hearn says: "I want to be
in a professional environment again
where people are grounded in some
sort of business reality."-New York
Times●