adminFarirai Machivenyika Harare Bureau
Artisanal miners sold three tonnes of gold to Fidelity Printers in the first half of this year, a figure that is threefold compared to deliveries of the same period last year. This was revealed by Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa in the National Assembly yesterday.
He said this while responding to a question by Zanu-PF Shamva South representative Joseph Mapiki on what government was doing to curb the illicit outflow of the precious mineral from the country.
“It used to be criminal for artisanal miners to mine gold, but that’s no longer the case. In the first six months of last year, they produced 900kg of gold but when we introduced the measures that we put in place, they’ve delivered three tonnes of gold in the first six months of this year. So, we’ll continue to look at where the leakages are and plug those leakages,” Minister Chinamasa said.
He said apart from de-criminalising operations of artisanal miners, the government had also liberalised the price of gold ore so that it is close to what was offered at the London Bullion market and also set up a committee to monitor the smuggling of gold.
“The price of gold that Fidelity buys at is nearly equal to the one at the London Bullion Market. We’ve also reduced royalties from five percent to the current one percent.
“There’s also a committee made up of the RBZ, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Mines and the police that’s meeting regularly to check on smuggling. There are so many people who are being caught trying to smuggle gold and other precious metals,” he added.
The government also introduced a fund to mechanise operations of artisanal miners as a way of boosting their productivity while the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has designed programmes to enhance their skills.
Online Reporter