The Sunday Mail
Business Reporter —
SMALL-SCALE gold miners have hit their stride, contributing 52 percent of the 1,94 tonnes of gold deliveries in October, helped to push the overall haul for the January to October period to 17,3 tonnes. It is a growth of 13 tonnes from a month earlier.
Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR), the gold-buying unit of the Reserve Bank, spent US$660 million on the gold. Overall, in the 10-month period to October 31, 2016, deliveries by small-scale miners topped 7,5 tonnes, while large-scale miners weighed in with 9,8 tonnes. Gold deliveries are now 1,1 tonnes shy of the 18,4 tonnes produced in 2015. Government has set a target of 24 tonnes this year.
The contribution of local platinum miners, who export directly after taking their ore to South Africa for processing, could see the country achieving the 24-tonne target. FPR general manager Mr Fradreck Kunaka told The Sunday Mail Business last week that small-scale miners had potential to produce more if they were formalised.
“In October, small-scale purchases accounted for 52 percent of the gold deliveries of 1,94 tonnes, showing the potential of the sector. There is need for the relevant stakeholders to speed up the formalisation of the sector for the benefit of the country.
“The country stands to benefit immensely from small-scale gold production only if all producers are able to freely dispose of the gold to Fidelity Printers and Refiners,” said Mr Kunaka.
There are moves to formalise small-scale miners so that they are not arrested for possessing gold if they sell to FPR. As the US dollar gains against a basket of other currencies, investors are shifting their portfolios to gold.
On Wednesday gold prices gained the most since Britain voted to exit the European Union by rising US$64 to US$1 338 per ounce after the US’s Republican presidential nominee, Mr Donald Trump, was declared the president-elect. Prices, however, eased to settle at US$1 273 per ounce.
Resource stocks listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange cheered the upward movement in prices. By mid-morning trading Thursday, Falgold was up 20 percent at US$0,0060, while RioZim was 2,6 percent up at US$0,20.
