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Golden Sibanda Senior Business Reporter
MINING companies appear to be now toeing the line regarding Government’s steadfast position on the urgent need to optimise benefits from minerals through beneficiation and have started backing their commitment to the policy with some action.
While Government has for a long time underscored the need to beneficiate and value-add minerals, especially platinum, there had been little action by mining firms regarding the establishment of the requisite facilities.
Instead of waiting on Government to make all the initiatives on how best to handle the issues of beneficiation or value addition, the Chamber of Mines will next month convene a symposium to discuss beneficiation and other mining issues.
Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday Chamber of Mines executive council member Mr Herbert Mashanyare, a director at Mimosa Mining Company, said the symposium will be held at Elephant Hills, Victoria Falls, from the 27th to the 28th of next month.
The theme of the conference is ‘Beneficiation: Maximising value from the mining sector in Zimbabwe’. The country is endowed with more than 60 different types of minerals. The symposium will discuss beneficiation of all minerals found in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has unlimited potential to benefit from its diverse minerals, for instance, considering the fact that it has the world’s second largest platinum reserves after South Africa, where it exports all its platinum produce in raw form for beneficiation.
Government has proposed a 15 percent tax on unbeneficiated platinum effective this month and a total ban by the end of this year as part of efforts to push mining companies to treat the issue of value addition facilities with urgency.
“However, much of the country’s mineral output is exported in its raw form. The conference seeks to provide a platform for open dialogue on the status of mineral beneficiation in Zimbabwe, opportunities and challenges and the way forward,” said Mr Mashanyare.
Government has had to maintain pressure on miners to act in support of its policy, which dovetails into its thrust for mining driven growth, and has threatened a total ban on unprocessed metals in the near future, especially platinum.
Miners had always expressed their willingness to support mineral beneficiation, but their actions did not tally with the urgency and seriousness with which Government wanted beneficiation and value addition treated.
Government has designated mining as the anchor for medium-term economic growth with beneficiation and value addition key elements, as espoused under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, its latest economic blueprint for the period 2014 /18.
It is often argued that Zimbabwe is not getting much value from mineral exports, considering that primary products are susceptible to price fluctuations.
However, Mr Mashanyare said while the impression was that all metals in Zimbabwe are exported raw, beneficiation was happening on a limited scale in minerals such as chrome, which is processed into ferrochrome.
“It has also been argued that by exporting raw products, the country is exporting jobs and economic rent and foregoing industrialisation opportunities presented by mineral endowments,” Mr Mashanyare said.
“There is need to learn from the country’s past experiences and those of other countries in the region and globally, Mr Mashanyare, who also chairs the Platinum Producers Association said.
The symposium will also discuss the contribution of mining to Zimbabwe, review of the mining fiscal regime and how to optimise the regime for more revenue and productivity and potential linkages between mining and other sectors.
Online Reporter