Fidelity Printers meets gold miners

Business Reporter
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) subsidiary, Fidelity Printers and Refineries, will conduct regional gold mining conferences across the country, starting with Gwanda on Thursday.

Fidelity general manager Mr Fradreck Kunaka said the conferences would be held in Matabeleland North and South, Manicaland West, Mashonaland East and Central and Midlands from August 30 to November 13, 2018.

“The conferences seek to bring together gold miners in each region who are selling their gold to Fidelity,” he said.

Other key stakeholders who will participate for the purposes of enhancing stakeholder participation in promoting gold production include RBZ, Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and the Environmental Management Agency (EMA).

The regional mining conferences will, among other things, address the importance of gold mining to the economy and funding opportunities for small and medium enterprises in the gold mining sector.

The conferences will also unpack the role of artisanal and small-scale miners in the growth of the gold mining industry in Zimbabwe as well as how they can formalise their operations while the EMA will unpack the obligations of the gold miner to the environment.

This year’s meeting comes as small-scale miners emerged as the biggest contributors of gold output in the country.

In seven months to July this year, small-scale miners have delivered 13,5 tonnes of the 21 tonnes received while large scale miners have so far contributed 7,3 tonnes. The figures suggest that small-scale miners have contributed 64,9 percent to gold deliveries so far.

The increase in gold production has been attributed to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Gold Development Initiative Fund (GDIF) being rolled out by Fidelity Printers and Refiners on behalf of RBZ. The gold output so far is merely four tonnes shy of last year’s total gold deliveries, which were pegged at 24,8 tonnes. Central bank Governor Dr John Mangudya has indicated that the country is on course to surpass this year’s 30 tonne gold target.