The Sunday Mail
THE first tranche of mining equipment worth US$5 million for small-scale gold miners is expected in Zimbabwe at the end of August after Government rescued the deal that had hit turbulence due to guarantee challenges.
Government procured gold mining equipment for small-scale miners under a US$100 million Chinese Development Bank facility, but delivery has taken longer than expected.
The Chinese had concerns over repayment but Government moved to guarantee the project.
Another bottleneck was on funding the shipment of machinery, and Government is said to have tasked the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to thrash out a pact with the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe to ensure the US$1 million freight fee was arranged.
Last week, The Sunday Mail Business established that Mines and Mining Development Ministry Deputy Minister Engineer Fred Moyo flew to Beijing to tie up loose ends.
A team of Mines Ministry engineers is expected to travel to China on Wednesday for pre-shipment inspection.
After that, the cargo will be loaded and should be in Zimbabwe in August.
Eng Moyo said the equipment would see small-scale miners ramping up production and boosting revenue generation.
“Government agreed a US$100 million loan facility with China for small-scale miners. Guarantee challenges resulted in China, through a company called XCMG, offering a US$5 million try tranche.
“I was in China recently to identify the equipment and local engineers are set to leave for China on June 15 to do pre-shipment inspection. The equipment is expected end of August and commissioning should take place in September or October,” said Eng Moyo.
XCMG Group is a Chinese multinational Government-owned, heavy machinery manufacturing company with headquarters in Xuzhou, Jiangsu.
The group was established in 1989 and as of this year is among the world’s five largest construction machinery firms.
The equipment will be distributed on a pro-rata basis, with high gold producers benefiting more.
According to minutes of a meeting in Harare on June 2, 2016 and attended by top Mines Ministry officials, including acting Chief Government Engineer Tapererwa Paskwavaviri and Zimbabwe Miners Federation representatives, participants discussed distribution.
Milling centres would be distributed as follows: Masvingo, Matabeleland North and Manicaland one each; Mashonaland East, Matabeleland South, Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central two each; and three for Midlands.
Government has set a target output of 100kg of gold per month so that the first tranche of equipment can be paid for in full quickly to enable the release of the second tranche.
If the first phase succeeds, a second one with US$15 million worth of equipment will be consummated.
Said Eng Moyo: “More funding will be released on the back of the success of the trial (run). In addition, alluvial or river mining will be commissioned on over five national rivers with a similar output target.
“First will be Gache Gache (in Mashonaland West) where a ministerial visit was undertaken last week.”
Eng Moyo said Government had taken deliberate steps to equip small-scale miners given their centrality to gold mining after contributing seven tonnes of the metal last year.
Gold is one of Zimbabwe’s top five foreign currency earners, raking in US$685 million last year from 18,3 tonnes produced.
Government has set a target of 24 tonnes this year, with small-scale miners expected to feed in 10 tonnes.
While small-scale gold miners have the potential to surpass the 10 tonnes gold output for this year, their operations are hamstrung by the absence of appropriate technology to haul ore from shafts.
Small-scale miners use buckets to bring ore out of shafts, which is labour intensive and unsustainable as most buckets haul about 20kg of ore at a time.
This means it takes miners two weeks to bring up just a tonne of ore.
Milling plants are expensive and few and far between.
Small-scale miners are said to control up to 65 percent of active gold deposits.
