adminWhinsley Masara, Business Reporter
THE Government is crafting amendments to the Gold Trade Act to curb leakages and smuggling of the precious mineral.
This was said recently by Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidakwa in a speech read on his behalf in Bulawayo during the 5th Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba that was hosted by the Zimbabwe Environment Lawyers Association (ZELA).
In the speech read by a deputy director in his ministry, Mr Valentine Vera, Minister Chidakwa said the Government was in the process of crafting the principles of the Gold Trade Act and the Precious Stones Trade Act.
He also said the Government was in the process of crafting a new mining fiscal regime that is meant to usher in transparency and competitive rates to support the fiscus as well as attract investment.
“The main objectives for amending the Acts were to curb leakages in the trade of the nation’s precious stones and to promote the efficient marketing of the country’s precious and semi-precious stones, “ he said.
“As President Robert Mugabe has clarified the issue of indigenisation, it will be a requirement that mining entities retain 75 percent of their revenue as local content. Local content refers to the value retained in Zimbabwe in the form of wages, salaries, taxation, community ownership schemes and other activities such as procurement and linkage programmes.”
The minister said in 2015, the mining sector recorded a negative growth and only gold and platinum recorded positive growth. This was mainly attributed to depressed mineral prices on the international market.
“The outlook for 2016 is promising with major minerals recording a robust performance in the first half of the year as compared to the same period last year despite the challenges of depressed international commodity prices, depreciating regional currencies and lack of access to affordable funding,” said Minister Chidakwa.
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