Gold centres to increase

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE government in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) is working on establishing more gold mining centres countrywide to improve milling and processing of the mineral.
ZMF president Trinos Nkomo told Business Chronicle the move was meant to enhance increased benefits to miners in line with the objectives of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

“We are looking at Zim-Asset and as a federation we’re on record saying surface gold has quickly gone down in terms of mining and we need to go deeper so that extraction is profitable and bankable.

“In essence, the approach regarding small-scale mining has to change in order to accumulate gold reserves,” he said.
“In as much as we want foreign investors we must also look at how we accumulate reserves and together with the government we have come up with a resolution that we need to create gold service centres.”

Nkomo said gold service centres would bring milling, processing and secondary extraction under one roof.
“The gold centre is a one stop shop where vocational training from the Zimbabwe School of Mines will be provided.

“Fidelity Printers and Refiners will buy gold from the point and communities can also benefit by introducing other community benefit programmes where they can get tap water,” he said.

“All in all, gold service centres are going to be one-stop shops where gold milling, processing, secondary extraction with cyanidation are done and the small scale miner will then benefit at the end of the day.”

Nkomo said about $1 million was required to set up a fully equipped gold service centre with six stamp mills.
“What we have done for now is we have actually consulted a number of companies to come up with quotations with regards to the amount required to set up a gold service centre.

“On average a centre with six stamp mills and fully equipped up to cyanidation will cost close to $1 million.
“We’ve quite a number of funders who are interested in doing this and we also got government on the other side.”

A pilot project for the gold service centre, he said, has been done in Zhombe with electricity having been connected.
The small-scale mining industry plays a critical role in economic development through increasing gold deliveries in the country resulting in government supporting the miners.

Gold output from small-scale miners has dwindled from 17,000 kilogrammes in 2004 to 957kg last year due to a number of challenges facing the miners.