Miners lobby for value addition policy

increase revenue inflows.
The mining sector proposals have been submitted to the Ministry of Finance ahead of the 2011 Mid-Term Fiscal Policy review next month.
In a statement, Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation president Mr Trynos Nkomo said that the mining sector was looking for ways to resuscitate the sector that is now on a recovery path.
“Stakeholders in the sector are lobbying for the value addition policy to consolidate gains that have been achieved by the mining industry in the past two years.
“The proposed value addition strategy, which comes when the mining sector is showing signs of recovery, will focus on mobilising US$20 million for the purchase of machinery,” he said.
Players in the mining sector say the absence of a value addition strategy is making it difficult to unlock export receipts and have agreed that there is need for reform in the mining sector. This can be done through harmonised legislation to ensure uniformity in demanding multi-national companies to participate in meaningful development of the countries they operate in.
Zimbabwe’s mineral growth for this year has also been revised upwards to 55 percent from 40 percent after the realisation by the Chamber of Mines that key minerals such as gold, platinum, coal, nickel and chrome have already surpassed first half targets in terms of output and earnings
This comes at a time when the mining sector throughout the continent has agreed to engage their respective governments in the reform of the sector so that individual countries benefit from their vast mineral resources which are currently being plundered by multi-national companies.
A mining practitioner from Ghana Mr Yao Graham said the issue of harmonising fiscal regimes in the mining sector remains critical as currently, individual companies are competing for external investors prejudicing themselves of thousands of dollars in royalties and taxes.
“We need to come up with harmonised framework that should ensure that individual countries benefit from natural resources,” he said.
The strategy aims at making sure that Africa speaks with one voice in determining the way minerals are traded on the international market.