ARTISANAL and small-scale mining has proven that it is an important sector in terms of poverty alleviation in the country. From employing hundreds of thousands to supporting the livelihood of millions of people, the sector is definitely a mainstay of the local economy. However, the sector is struggling to stay afloat due to headwinds such as lack of funding. Our reporter Blessed Ndlovu (BN) sat down with Young Miners Foundation (YMF) chief executive officer Payne Farai Kupfuwa (PK, pictured), whose organisation was formed to advance and upscale youth entrepreneurial participation in mining through increased formalisation and professionalisation of small-scale mining. Below are excerpts from the interview.
BN: Tell us briefly about your organisation?PK: The Young Miners Foundation was established in 2010 to advance and upscale youth entrepreneurial participation in mining through increased formalisation and professionalisation of small-scale mining.
BN: What have you achieved since 2010?PK: Over the past 14 years, the organisation has been re-writing and re-defining the small-scale mining narrative by organising artisanal mining practitioners into more formalised mining syndicates and small capitalised mining companies registered with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development in all the provinces of the country.YMF has also partnered with the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe School of Mines to offer training on fundamentals in small-scale mining management to a meaningful number of young miners from different provinces who are now well informed which has bolstered production in small-scale mining.
Fact file: Payne Kupfuwa
- Payne Farai Kupfuwa is a multi-award-winning young mining entrepreneur.
- He is the founder and chief executive of Young Miners Foundation (YMF), which was established in 2010 to advance and upscale youth entrepreneurial participation in more formalised and professional mining enterprise development.
- YMF has a membership of more than 3000 young miners all around the country.
- He is an associate in the Green Mining Capital Pvt Ltd responsible for securing and guiding financial models for small scale mining projects.
- In 2015, Payne was appointed secretary in the Sustainable Mining Development Trust Savings and Credit Cooperative.
- In 2017, he organized Young Women Miners to create Izimangazenkosi Gold reef mining syndicate.
- Payne is part of the Zimbabwe Safety Health Environmental Council and Young Miners Green Mining Council, which partnered with the Great Dyke YAFM radio station to advocate for more responsible mining.
- He created a strategic partnership between YMF, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe School of Mines to train more than 200 young miners on fundamentals in small scale mining management.
- Prior to his career in mining, Payne was attached to the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe in 2006 to 2007 as an agribusiness practice and administration intern.
BN: Anything specific for young miners?PK: Our organisation has managed to give young miners exposure to more established stakeholders in the mining value chain by participating at forums like MineEntra. We have created a strong networking platform for young miners to share experiences and/or ideas on how they can run more formalised and optimise production at their mining projects.
BN: Can you tell us more about these field days you are carrying out?PK: YMF is the first mining organisation to do young miners field days, a concept borrowed from farming to inspire and encourage young miners to operate environmentally friendly and responsible mining. We have partnered with organisations like YAFM as our mining community radio to educate young miners on more responsible mining.
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BN: Are you giving any financial support to these miners?PK: We have established strategic relations with other mining organisations beyond our borders to share knowledge and partner on some mining projects in an effort to bridge the capital shortage gap. YMF has created tailor made alternative financing models in order to assist young miners to increase production to attain the US$12 billion mining economy which resonates to the prosperous and empowered upper middle-income economy by 2030.
BN: How many miners have you supported so far?PK: The foundation has assisted close to a thousand young artisanal miners to formalise and professionalise their operations.
BN: What major challenges are affecting artisanal miners?PK: The major challenge faced by young artisanal and small-scale miners is capital to take off or boost their projects to optimise production and of course lack proper training on how to operate sustainable, environmentally friendly and more formalised mining enterprises. The other challenge is access to open areas with meaningful mineral deposits in order to secure mining rights and operate formally. Most rich areas are under exclusive prospecting orders or reserved so they cannot be pegged for formalised mining projects.
BN: In your own opinion, what do you think should be done to resolve these challenges?PK: Legislation should ease access to mining rights.Indeed, artisanal and small-scale miners can surely be transformed to grow from small to medium if not large mining enterprises if they are well formalised and structured to allow and attract investment so much that they can be upscaled to more established enterprises and in the process creating formal employment for mining related graduates.
So, as YMF we are making frantic efforts and have laid an unflinching fight to also engage big mining houses and potential partners to come on board. Needless to say that the process starts from formalising and professionalising the mining operations.
Artisanal and small-scale mining has been contributing more than 60% of the gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery and even in other minerals like chrome and gemstones through the aggregation of the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe.The best way to bolster efficiency gains in mining to increase efforts in formalising and professionalising small-scale mining. It has to be taken as a business not a poverty driven initiative or a get rich scheme. Proper business ethics should be employed so that the industry can attract meaningful investment.
Potential local or foreign investors and/or financiers can come on board on more formalised business enterprises to reduce risk. There is also a need for increased training on entrepreneurship and how to effectively operate formalised mining enterprises.More formalisation and more mechanisation will make the industry grow because the country is endowed with vast mineral deposits.
