Mines and Mining Development minister Soda Zhemu says gold deliveries have been on an upward trajectory from the first quarter to the fourth quarter on mobilisation efforts on the yellow metal.
This comes after the ministry introduced the gold mobilisation exercise which saw 26,2 tonnes of gold delivered to Fidelity Gold Refinery for the period of January to October against a set target of 40 tonnes.
The gold monitoring surveillance blitz is targeting five mining provinces namely Mashonaland west, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Midlands and Matabeleland South.
Speaking during fourth quarter gold mobilisation development workshop yesterday Zhemu said the exercise ensures there are no gold leakages especially from small scale miners.
“It was noted that there is poor record keeping by small scale miners leading to difficulties in accessing requisite information. Most of the small-scale miners do not have production records and do not submit returns hence there is little or no gold accountability.”
“Due to the gold mobilisation exercises, gold deliveries have been on an upward trend from the first quarter to date. The major objective of this exercise is to ensure we mop up the gold and ensure it is delivered to Fidelity Gold Refiners so t we finish the year strongly,” Zhemu said.
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The exercise continues to be one of the initiatives to spearhead the growth of the gold mining sub-sector and its main purpose is to boost gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery and also to minimise leakages.
The exercise accounts for all stages of the gold production process in order to ensure transparency and accountability, thus decreasing illicit gold mining activities.
Out of the deliveries made to Fidelity Gold Refineries this year, small scale miners contributed about 63%, which is 18% lower than last year’s delivery.
“The gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refiners by small scale miners decreased by 18% from 20,1 tonnes to 16,5 tones. The decreased gold production from small scale miners, who are the major contributors of gold delivered to Fidelity Gold Refiners is a result of poor mechanisation in the ASM sector and lack of geological reports to assess the resources within mining locations.”
“Access to capital is a major challenge to most ASM.This is because most small scale miners have limited assets to use as collateral,” Zhemu added.
The government has set aside US$ 5 million towards capacitation of small scale miners and another US$5 million towards establishment of five gold service centers.
The service centre is a one stop shop that offers technical services to miners, access to milling, access to capital and a ready market for the commodity for small scale miners.