20 firms come to small scale miners’ rescue

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
OVER 20 established companies in the mining sector value chain have pledged to support small-scale miners with equipment and machinery to boost their productivity.

The small-scale mining industry contributes significantly to the Gross Domestic Product and fiscus.

Until last year, small-scale miners in the gold sector have been contributing over 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s yellow metal deliveries.

This is despite inherent bottlenecks facing the miners, which cripple capacity such as mechanisation gaps and inadequate capitalisation.

Zimbabwe Miners Federation chief executive officer, Mr Wellington Takavarasha, said they were excited that the private sector has come on board in support of the small-scale miners’ activities.

“We are excited that we have more than 20 companies coming on board to assist small-scale miners.

“They will provide different services including mining equipment supply, and this will help us in achieving the US$12 billion mining industry economy by 2023,” he said.

Last year, the small-scale mining sector delivered 9,347 tonnes from 17,478 tonnes in 2019 with the decline attributed to a host of reasons among them power cuts, delays in payment for deliveries and smuggling of the precious metal.

In 2019, Zimbabwe targeted an output of 40 tonnes coming from large and small-scale miners, having attained 33,2 tonnes the previous year.

However, the target was missed as Zimbabwe produced a total of 27,66 tonnes.

ZMF insists that the 40-tonne projection is still achievable if all stakeholders make concerted efforts to support production and plug leakages.

Zimbabwe’s total gold output in 2020 continued plummeting, closing the year at 19,052 tonnes.

The country earns much of its foreign currency from mining, with gold being one of the major contributors.

In October 2019, the Government set a target of a US$12 billion mining industry by 2023 and the gold sector is expected to contribute US$4 billion.

At present, the gold sector generates between US$2,5 billion and US$2,8 billion to the fiscus.-@okazunga