Vusumuzi Dube
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
MINERS have been urged to be on the lookout for new and innovative technologies that will help improve their productivity and maximise their potential of unlocking more deposits on site.
The mining industry is one of Zimbabwe’s economic cornerstones with the sector contributing about 70 percent of the country’s foreign currency earnings.
The sector through a mining industry roadmap is well on course to grow to a US$12 billion industry by end of this year.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Improving Profitability in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining conference at the Zimbabwe School of Mines on Friday, Young Miners Foundation (YMF) chief executive officer (CEO) Mr Payne Kupfuwa said miners should improve efficiencies through technology.
“Productivity is about maximising throughput per unit which should be of quality and cost effective. While humans are up to the task of doing the best they can to optimise productivity, application of better use of technology can do away with a lot of human errors and do a lot more,” said Mr Kupfuwa.
He said miners should use current and advanced technologies that will help improve the productivity, while replacing disjointed reporting systems with unified streamlined management dashboards that report on actual operational performance.
Mr Kupfuwa said artisanal and small-scale miners should take mining as a business and transform the systems they use for their operations with latest technologies to assess the core drivers of their mines.
“The use of production visibility tools to get an automat visual of mining operations from shafts to plants can ensure you fully understand the site you are operating on. To bring costs down in sustainable way, miners need to re-evaluate their operating models to ensure that they have the management and reporting systems necessary to build a cost management culture,” he added.
He said they can increase the production from shafts where the cost is low and prioritise them, while also curbing capital expenditures on shafts which have a lower potential for production and shorter mine life.
Mr Kupfuwa said the aim of artisanal and small-scale miners should be to create more formal jobs and business opportunities in the mining value chain for the youths.
He said: “Most of the younger miners who are artisanal and small-scale miners are into illegal mining and are losing a lot of money in the process. It is therefore critical for them to receive training so that they can be able to regularise their operations. As YMF our goal is to see youths taking mining as a business and eventually grow their small-scale operations to medium scale.”
Globally, in the mining industry, automated technologies have reduced labour and maintenance costs with continuous operation and less variability. They have also minimised environmental harm and mining technologies have allowed workers to extract mining materials with minimal environmental impact.
The conference which was organised by the ZUZA Mining Cooperative together with other partners saw various experts sharing exclusive insights on how best to improve profitability in artisanal and small-scale mining, while also tackling how they can collaborate to formalise their operations.
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