Govt to set chrome price

Deputy Mines and Mining Development Minister Gift Chimanikire said Government, through its mining commissioners, would start working on modalities to determine minimum chrome ore prices.
Currently, smelting companies are paying about US$10 per tonne of chrome. Once it is processed, the stone can be sold for more than US$140 a tonne.
“We want to set the minimum prices because there are concerns that smelters are underpaying miners,” said Mr Chimanikire.
“We will be doing that through our mining commissioners.”
Government banned the export of chrome ore last month in a move aimed at boosting local smelters that process the mineral before it is shipped overseas.
The ban took effect from April 20 this year, following an 18-month review of the chrome export policy.
According to Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation, Zimbabwe has nine chrome smelters capable of processing up to 1,5 million tonnes of ore per year.
Zimbabwe produced about 600 000 tonnes of chrome ore last year, according to the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe. This implies that the country has sufficient capacity to process the extracted mineral.
Some of the large ferrochrome exporters include Zimbabwe Alloys and Zimasco, owned by China’s Sinosteel.
Last year, Zimasco announced a five-year US$300 million-plus plan to increase its smelting capacity.
Mr Chimanikire said Government was “unlikely” to review its position on chrome export ban despite appeals from miners.
“We were specific that the ban will take effect from April 20 and that position will stand,” he said.
“We have received appeals but we cannot continue losing (revenue from the export of the raw mineral) yet we have enough (smelting) capacity.”
Zimbabwe and South Africa hold about 90 percent of the world’s chromite reserves and resources, according to the US Geological Survey.