By Lucky Khumalo

The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has approved R54 million for the construction of a salt crystallization plant in the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ).

The construction of a purpose-built pure vacuum-dried (PVD) salt crystallization facility for the salt company Cerebos, will start in February 2007 within the IDZ near Port Elizabeth.

The IDZ is one of the government's high priority projects to bring about significant economic benefits to the Eastern Cape region, create employment, energise industrial development and promote international trade.

DBSA investment officer for this project, Simon Vincent pointed out that the Eastern Cape was one of the bank’s designated “hot spots” in dire need of infrastructure development and job creation.

The new plant is expected to significantly boost Cerebos output capacity, enabling it to meet the ever-increasing demand of PVD salt.

“The demand for PVD salt currently exceeds supply by a wide margin and operating at only one ton an hour. Cerebos’s existing facility at the Coega salt pans is unable to keep up,” said Vincent.

Using mechanical vapour recompression and the latest technology, the plant will be highly energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.

“At an output capacity of 45 000 tons per year, the new plant will facilitate faster and more streamlined production,” he said.

Concentrated brine or crude salt will be used as feed material to produce premium quality PVD salt for household consumption and pharmaceutical usage.

Cerebos announced an R85 million investment at the CDC early this year, to give create hundreds of job opportunities for Eastern Cape communities.

CDC spokesperson Vuyelwa Qinga Vika said the expansion of the Cerebos project at the Coega would see the company “retaining much needed jobs”.

She said the new facility would include state of the art technology with production capacity of 45 000 tons per year based on 7500 operating hours.

According to Cerebos Managing Director Len Chandler, about 200 jobs would be created during the construction phase in addition to 140 jobs in current operations.

He added that an increase in job opportunities was expected as the company increased its volume due to an increasing local and international demand of PVD salt.

According to him, BEE acquisition made Cerebos the first and only salt processing company to comply and exceed BEE requirements in South Africa.

Source: BuaNews