Chronicle Editor
Harmony Gold, a South African metals miner, produced 23 tonnes of gold from its 11 mines in that country and Papua New Guinea in 2022.
That output is just 12 tonnes less than what our miners – large and small – produced in the same year.
We acknowledge that there are many factors determining gold production across jurisdictions.
However, we wonder how possible it is that one company’s yearly output could get so close to equalling production of up to 15 large mines and countless small ones and omakorokoza in another country famous for its low-cost workings and an abundance of the metal.
We don’t think we would be too off the mark if we argued that the country actually produces much more, perhaps double the official figure. The other production finds its way out of the country illegally and we think this has been going on for as long as gold has been mined in the country.
That has to stop.
Authorities have been working hard to stem the smuggling of the mineral, as highlighted by the numerous arrests and convictions we have seen. Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) has also been paying competitive prices for deliveries while shortening the turnaround time from delivery to payment.
It is paying 100 percent in US$ as well.
In addition, the Government provides loans to miners so that they can buy equipment and has opened gold buying centres at convenient points across the country.
However, these and other incentives have not stopped the leakages of the mineral hence the launch by the Government on Wednesday, of a week-long monitoring and surveillance blitz being implemented by 17 teams in the eight mining provinces in the country.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Mr Pfungwa Kunaka told our Harare Bureau:
“The gold mobilisation blitz, remains an effective exercise that the Government of Zimbabwe has identified as a driving force to ensure we increase the deliveries of gold to FGR hence the growth of the mining sector and the Zimbabwean economy at large.
The monitoring and surveillance exercise is intended to raise the amount of gold delivered to FGR and to ensure accountability by stakeholders.
“We must ensure that we conduct the exercise diligently and show innovativeness as we conduct inspections of the production plants as we go through the various stages of production.
We would also want records on all hammer mills and mobile gold processing units be collected. That way we will identify leakages and illegal operations. We hope this will open room for gold to successfully find its way to FGR.”
Indeed, the teams that are out in the countryside are on a very, very important mission to understand how the industry operates and identify gaps that must be plugged immediately so gold is sold through official channels.
They must be diligent in their work, as Mr Kunaka pointed out and refuse to be corrupted by miners who might be having one or two things to hide.
On the other hand, miners must co-operate fully with the probe teams when asked to do so. They must open their books and machines and be open about their operations.
And we hope that their books are in order, accurately recording their production, their expenditures, their deliveries to the FGR and their incomes.
Our country has a fully developed gold mining industry, is blessed with huge deposits of the metal, therefore its annual production must not be as small as to compete with production of one company such as Harmony Gold.
The ongoing blitz, the observations the teams will make, their recommendations and measures that the Government will put in place thereafter will be essential in the national effort to grow output to 50 tonnes in the next few years.
Online Reporter