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Oliver Kazunga
Senior Business Reporter
FREDA Rebecca Gold Mine says it is tributing its mining claims in the Midlands Province to small-scale miners as part of an empowerment drive.
The mine that is situated in Bindura about 87 kilometres north-east of Harare, Zimbabwe’s largest gold miner presently processes 2,5 million tonnes of ore per annum from underground and open-pit operations.
In an interview during a recent media tour of the firm’s operations, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine managing director Mr Patrick Maseva-Shayawabaya said they have approved seven tribute applications from small-scale miners who should then go on to employ people to work on the claims sustaining their families.
In terms of contribution to the fiscus, gold is the major foreign currency earner and under the US$12 billion mining economy by the end of this year, the yellow metal is expected to contribute US$4 billion.
Platinum is expected to contribute US$3 billion, diamonds US$1 billion while chrome, ferrochrome and carbon steel will generate US$1 billion, lithium US$500 million, and coal US$1 billion.
Other minerals are expected to generate US$1,5 billion.
“Clearly, it is part of our empowerment initiative but I would like to say because of how much it is costing us to protect our claims, we have made a decision that those claims that we don’t anticipate to be working on in the short term, we either tribute, seed or sell them,” he said.
Freda, which is a member of Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) in which the Government controls a 65 percent stake, was acquired in 2020 by KMH, which has invested about US$22 million into capital projects aimed at boosting output.
In the first quarter that ran from April to June 2023, produced 603 kilogrammes of yellow metal compared to 592kg in the corresponding period last year.
Established in 1987, the gold asset has the capacity to process 2,8 million tonnes of ore annually.
At present, the operation has embarked on a US$2 million exploration programme expected to extend the life of the mine beyond five years at current production rate of 2,5 million tonnes of ore per annum.
Although Mr Maseva-Shayawabaya would not be drawn into disclosing the volume of their gold claims in the Midlands, he said his organisation has tracts of mining titles scattered across the province that they cannot exploit for now.
“Exploration is very expensive but so is protecting the claims. So, our initial focus was on our lease area here (Bindura) because we already have got a processing plant whereas if we move to Midlands, even if we have got a very good resource, it means you now have got to build a new plant there.
“Therefore, it’s necessary for us that we first of all make sure that we have exhausted everything that we have got within the immediate area of our current operations before we go further afield.
“Our claims are all over the Midlands and we have got a fair claims’ holding in that province. I wouldn’t like to go into numbers.
“Right now we are tributing some of them because obviously it’s not fair for us to sit on something that someone else could be mining and we are also busy processing some tribute applications,” he said.
“We always get tribute applications and generally a number of these applications are by small-scale miners. We have got a couple of them who appear to have teamed up with some Chinese investors.”
Over the years, the Government has adopted the “use it or lose it” policy to bolster production in the mining sector, which is Zimbabwe’s major economic mainstay by ensuring that all idle concessions are not held for speculative purposes.
“Holding a claim cost money if you are not yet ready to set up a mine at a claim, it’s better that if there is somebody who wants to tribute it you let somebody else operate and they pay you and from what they pay you, you are able to pay your claim protection fees,” said Mr Maseva-Shayawabaya.
Meanwhile, the Government has targeted to repossess 213 idle mining claims across the country under phase one of the programme, which last year the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development said had been bogged down by some mining title holders who have approached the courts to block the process.
Through the Mines and Minerals Act, the Government is empowered to repossess unused mining titles and reissue them to investors capable of developing productive mines.
In 2021, over 80 mining claims out of the 213 identified underutilised concessions were repossessed under the first phase of the initiative.
The repossessed assets are in sub-sectors such as gold, chrome, and coal, among others.
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