admindivulge details.
“We are certainly working on that but nothing has been approved yet or gazetted. Maybe if you check with me by midweek something will have been agreed on,” Mr Mupazviriho said.
However, a schedule seen by The Herald with some of the proposed increases has already caused panic within the mining sector.
According to the draft schedule the application fees for an ordinary prospectors licence for platinum will rise from US$150 to US$500 000 while the registration fee will be US$2,5 million from US$300.
The fees are paid once off and non-refundable.
Ground rentals per annum will rise from US$10 per five claims to US$1 000 per hectare.
For diamonds, the registration fee will remain at US$1 million although a once off and non-refundable registration fee of US$5 million will be introduced if the proposals are approved.
The licence to cut and polish diamonds will rise to US$100 000 from US$20 000 while a gold buying licence will double from US$2 500 to US$5 000.
Custom milling licence will rise to US$8 000 from US$2 000 while for toll smelters it will rise to US$5 000.
A person wishing to be registered as a prospector will have to fork out US$5 000 per year up from the US$100.
An ordinary prospecting licence will attract US$500 per mining district up from the US$100 for the whole country that used to be charged.
The application fee for coal and coal bed methane gas, mineral oils, natural gas and nuclear energy mineral resource will attract a once off non-refundable application fee of US$100 000, up from US$5 000 while an application for chrome prospecting will be pegged at US$500 from US$100.
In an interview a small scale miner who declined to be named said a number of small scale miners were likely to cease operations if the fees were adopted as indicated in the schedule.
“Although the fees have not yet been gazetted what we have seen as proposals will affect small scale miners and the youths who want to venture into mining.
“Government’s policy is premised on allowing youths to venture into self employment and mining has been identified as one such area for that but these proposals seem to work against that policy,” a parliamentarian who requested anonymity said.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy, Cde Edward Chindori-Chininga said the increases would not be in the mining sector’s interests if they were to be gazetted.
“We are just hearing the rumours of the increases but we are yet to establish the truth since we just returned to work last week. However, licence fees should not be used as a revenue generating instrument but an enabling instrument.
“There should be other measures to control who comes in instead of raising licences. Some of the figures we are hearing are unaffordable to Zimbabweans,” he said.
Online Reporter