The Sunday Mail
Nelson Gahadza
The GOVERNMENT says plugging mineral leakages remains one of its top priorities, hence it will institute various initiatives aimed at accounting for all the gold produced in Zimbabwe.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Cde Zhemu Soda said their strategic plan’s major highlight is to increase gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refiners through a gold mobilisation programme.
“Mineral leakages deprive the Government of much-needed revenue from taxes and royalties. This, in turn, creates uncertainty and instability in the mining sector, which can discourage foreign investment and deprive the country of much-needed capital and expertise,” he said during a gold mobilisation workshop held recently.
Minister Soda said the Government has enacted a quarterly gold mobilisation programme that seeks to aid in plugging mineral leakages.
The leakages are prevalent in the gold mining sector, especially among small and artisanal miners. Reduced deliveries reflect increased leakages through smuggling and diversion of gold to the informal market.
Experts believe Zimbabwe can curb mineral leakages by cultivating a sense of responsibility among citizens to safeguard its mineral wealth in order to achieve sustainable development.
According to Minister Soda, the ministry has sent monitoring and surveillance teams to the country’s six mining provinces, whose mandate is to inspect and account for all the gold produced in an effort to boost deliveries.
He said gold mobilisation continues to be one of the projects the Government has identified to spearhead the growth of the mining sector and the Zimbabwean economy in general.
“The mandate of the teams deployed will be to thoroughly inspect and ensure that all stakeholders account for all gold that has passed through their hands.
“The monitoring and surveillance exercise is meant to boost gold deliveries onto the legal market and increase its accountability by stakeholders,” he said.
The minister added: “As we continue to improve the manner in which we conduct the exercise, the teams should continue with the innovative way of inspecting plants at each stage of production across the whole value chain.”
Minister Soda said teams will be required to collect records on all hammer mills and mobile gold processing units, which have become rampant in the provinces.
“This will help the Ministry of Mines to account for the gold that these illegal operators are producing with the hope of ensuring that this gold also finds its way to Fidelity Gold Refiners,” he said.
According to the minister, the 2023 Third Quarter Gold Mobilisation Exercise will cover the country’s mining provinces of Masvingo, Matabeleland North, Mashonaland Central, Midlands, Manicaland and Mashonaland West.
He said the mining sector is expected to play a pivotal role in the attainment of the country’s vision of being an upper middle-income economy by 2030, as enshrined in the National Development Strategy 1 (2021-2025).
“President Mnangagwa has implored us to work hard towards achieving the vision of an upper middle-income economy by the year 2030. We can achieve that by ensuring a sustainable gold mining industry, given the value we can gain from this mineral,” said Minister Soda.
Gold has remained one of the major foreign currency earners for Zimbabwe, and the sector has proved to be strategic to the mining industry and the national economy at large.
In 2022, gold deliveries to FGR stood at 35,2 tonnes, which was above the set target.
The target set for the 2023 gold deliveries to FGR is 40 tonnes. Minister Soda said the key to realising this target is the plugging of side markets.
In the period from January 2023 to August 2023, gold deliveries to FGR stood at 19 335 tonnes, against a target of 40 tonnes by the end of the year.
In 2022, for the months of January to August, a total of 22,29 tonnes were delivered, representing a 13,2 percent decrease.
Minister Soda noted that small-scale miners will continue to be the major gold
producers, contributing over 60 percent every year from 2020, and the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has employed a number of strategies to capacitate the small-scale miners to enhance their production.
He said the strategies include establishment of gold service centres, and the first site, which is in Makaha, Mashonaland East, is at an advanced stage, with commissioning set for the end of October 2023.
“The commissioning of the other four gold service centres is set for December 2023,” he noted.
The minister also indicated that the Mining Industry Loan Fund — under the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development — is also capacitating small-scale miners through the supply of equipment to improve their production standards and efficiency.
