Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
Ammonium Nitrate (AN) manufacturer Sable Chemicals is targeting to produce about 30 000 tonnes of fertiliser ahead of the winter cropping season, an official has said.

Sable Chemicals chief executive Mr Bothwell Nyajeka said the company, which had a long-term plan of producing 240 000 tonnes of AN every year by the end of 2019, will produce 30 000 tonnes for the winter cropping season.

“For the winter cropping season we are targeting to produce 30 000 tonnes of AN. We haven’t reached the target yet, but I am confident that we can achieve that,” he said.

Mr Nyajeka said the company was pinning its hopes on Government’s Coal Bed Methane deal, which is expected to be sealed this month.

“If the CBM deal materialises, it would be a better option for us because we will be sourcing the raw material locally,” he said. CMB is a method for extracting methane from a coal deposit through a process called steam reforming.

Methane adsorbed into a solid coal matrix will be released if the coal seam is de-pressurised and hydrogen will be extracted which will then be used for the production of fertiliser.

Sable Chemicals is importing ammonia, a key component in the production of AN, from South Africa, following the decommissioning of its obsolete electrolysis plant.

The company was looking forward to start using coal bed methane CBM in the production of AN.

The Kwekwe-based company switched off its electrolysis plant and was importing ammonia from South Africa that would be fed into the AN manufacturing plant, which has the energy consumption capacity of 10 megawatts (MW) compared to 115 MW consumed by the electrolysis plant.

Sable Chemicals has a staff complement of 300 people.