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Oliver Kazunga
Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S largest mining group, Kuvimba Mining House (KMH), has implemented a mine-to-market traceability software in compliance with international regulatory requirements for transparency and accountability in the mining industry.
The software enables the tracking of minerals produced within the group from extraction right up to their marketing. Since 2008, mineral conflict has been an issue globally with international market leaders denouncing the production and trading of such resources.
Responding to questions from journalists at their offices in Harare yesterday, KMH group acting chief executive, Mr Trevor Barnard said the mine-to-market traceability system, which his organisation adopted in 2021, was being implemented across all their diverse portfolios.
The group, which is also one of the State enterprises and parastatals controlled by the Mutapa Investment Fund, operates a portfolio of mines organised into four clusters of minerals namely gold, Platinum Group Metals (PGMs), energy minerals (nickel and lithium), and the bulk commodities (iron, steel and chrome).
“The Comstack system applies across the board, at the moment we have only implemented it for gold because that’s really the only mineral or metal that we sell in large quantities internationally,” he said. “Once we get to lithium and start producing volumes of lithium concentrates and through the beneficiated materials, certainly, we will need to introduce it to that as well and the same for platinum and chrome.”
Comstack is a United Kingdom-headquartered firm with operations across Africa including Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe, where KMH has become the first entity to implement the tracking system locally.
Earlier during a media briefing, Mr Barnard said the system gives them transparency and accountability as it enhances gold traceability from the mine to the market.
“Most importantly, we need to have regulatory compliance not only within Zimbabwe, but also internationally,” he said. The need to adhere to extracting quality minerals in a sustainable manner while effectively managing environmental impact was also among the reasons behind KMH’s adoption of the mine-to-market tracking system.
Comstack Africa, head of operations, Mr Garikayi Mutandwa said since 2008, conflict minerals have been an issue with many laws having subsequently been passed by developed countries.
Such countries include the United States and nations in the European Union who have their own law on compliance, which was put in place in 2017 and adopted in 2021.
“Other than your safety and health and other audit compliance, there is a need for traceability to counter terrorism financing and money laundering.
“Initially when it was started, it was just looking at tin, tantalum and tungsten and gold particularly in the Great Lakes region, but they have continued to extend it right across the board.
“So, it’s now applicable in South America and across Africa. They have added gold, cobalt to that list and more minerals.
“In fact, they are just saying your mining should be traceable, transparent just to have better accountability,” he said.
After the media briefing, journalists were taken on a tour of Freda Rebecca Gold Mine in Bindura where the mining company, which is a member of KMH, was implementing the mine-to-market traceability system.
In his address, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine managing director, Mr Patrick Maseva-Shayawabaya, said the mine-to-market traceability system installed at Freda and Jena Mines, another subsidiary of KMH, had enhanced traceability of the yellow metal produced within the group.
“The software that Comstack has installed here at Freda and also at Jena enables the production that we achieve here to be tracked directly to the market where it ends up.
“As things stand right now since Kuvimba came on board in 2020, the production capacity of our mill has increased to about 100 000 ounces (2 834,95 kilogrammes) per annum and that just shows how the company has grown over the years in terms of production.
“Operations started back in 1988; ours is a low grade operation and therefore we necessarily have got to process higher volumes,” Mr Maseva-Shayawabaya.
Freda Rebecca’s average grade is 1,5 grammes per tonne.
They process about two million tonnes of ore per annum.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter