The Sunday Mail
Livingstone Marufu —
GOLD producers raked in US$614 million in nine months to September 2016 — US$98 million more than they did in the same period a year ago — underlining the sector’s importance to Zimbabwe’s economy.
The 19 percent leap in revenues is attributed to the shift of portfolio investments towards gold. Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa said Government was setting up gold-buying units in remote areas, while negotiations were underway to provide equipment to small-scale miners to help them increase production.
“As Government, we are setting up gold-buying teams in areas like Mutoko and other distant areas to ensure that we add these small chunks into our overall gold basket. We are moving fast to encourage small-scale miners to sell their gold to our teams instead of (smuggling it out of the country).
“We are negotiating with the Russians to help us with more advanced mining machinery to improve our gold mining revenue; we want to improve from the current revenue of US$45 million per week to a range of between US$60 million and US$70 million a week,” he said.
Most gold mining companies are ramping up production. Metallon Corporation, Zimbabwe’s biggest producer of the metal, increased output by 18 percent to 26 622 ounces in the third quarter to September after improvements in performance at How, Mazowe and Redwing mines.
The mining group, owned by South African businessman Mzi Khumalo, also operates How and Shamva mines. Blanket Mine has also been increasing output. Gold production is projected to top 24 tonnes this year from 20 tonnes last year.
Since November 1, gold prices have also been increasing. Prices rose from US$41 000 per kg on November 1 to US$42 000/kg by November 3.
