Chronicle Editor
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE Zvishavane-Mberengwa Miners Association (ZMMA) has praised the move to introduce a loan facility by Hammer and Tongues Auctioneers, which it says will go a long way in capacitating and enhancing its members’ production levels.
ZMMA chairman Mr Thembinkosi Sibanda said artisanal and small-scale miners who managed to access Hammer and Tongues Auctioneers’ loan facility have managed to significantly improve production and equipped their operations.
“Hammer and Tongues’ facility has played a pivotal role in enabling our members to procure strategic machinery such as hammer mills, compressors including water pumps, which have been useful in de-watering shafts.
As you are aware, artisanal and small-scale gold miners have over the years been facing challenges in acquiring requisite mining machinery but Hammer and Tongues comes with very flexible payment terms and reasonable interest rates,” he said.
The loan facility is modelled in such a way that a miner identifies or takes a quotation from a reputable mining equipment supplier to Hammer and Tongues Auctioneers and in turn the company pays for such machinery with the miner obliged to repay within 12 months at 10 percent interest rate.
Gold production by small-scale miners has benefited largely from support initiatives and incentives extended by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the decriminalisation by Government of activities such as panning.
However, lack of adequate and sophisticated equipment and machinery to extract and process ore continues to hamper the sector.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation vice-president Mr Freddy Ncube said the mechanisation of small-scale miners was of paramount importance towards ensuring improved production in the mining sector.
“For small-scale miners to contribute effectively to the country’s mineral output there is a need to ensure they are effectively mechanised. For instance chrome is a base metal and it needs sophisticated machinery for one to reach the seam and most of the miners can’t afford such machinery.
We had pinned hopes on the Chinese facility, which Government was working over the past few years but the deal collapsed,” he said.
In 2016 Chinese firm, Xuzhou Mining Construction Machinery Group of China put on hold delivery of gold mining equipment under a US$100 million credit facility from China Import and Export Bank as it battled to recover money for equipment it supplied to Chiadzwa diamond firms.
Hammer and Tongues Auctioneer general manager Mrs Mildred Chirwa said the company was prompted to come up with a loan facility after a three-year feasibility study to ascertain the challenges, which were faced by artisanal and small-scale miners.
“We noted that they (artisanal and small-scale miners) are a committed lot, with a passion for what they do.
However, they lacked equipment for them to explore further.
The banking sector had facilities for them but their major constraint was security or collateral,” she said.
Mrs Chirwa said the company only introduces the facility to associations, which exhibit traits of good governance.
“We discovered that some miners had very strong associations such as ZMMA and some in Gwanda.
We then agreed with the executive that they guarantee loans advanced to their members.
It was a huge risk considering that it is not easily enforceable,” she said.
Mrs Chirwa applauded ZMMA for adhering to the loan facility’s requirements.
“ZMMA has had a 100 percent repayment to date. Errant members were managed by the executive.
Though some would go into arrears due to different challenges or misconduct, we give a thumbs up to the executive.
The product only works where the executive is strong and has control over its members and also makes good recommendations,” she said.
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