Mining fees set to go up

divulge 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 our Harare Bureau 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 prospector’s licence for platinum will rise from $150 to $500 000 while the registration fee will be $2,5 million from $300.
The fees are paid once off and non- refundable.
Ground rentals per annum will rise from $10 per five claims to $1 000 per hectare.
For diamonds, the registration fee will remain at $1 million although a once off and non-refundable registration fee of $5 million will be introduced if the proposals are approved.
The licence to cut and polish diamonds will rise to $100 000 from $20 000 while a gold buying licence will double from $2 500 to $5 000.
Custom milling licence will rise to $8 000 from $2 000 while for toll smelters it will rise to $5 000.
A person wishing to be registered as a prospector will have to fork out $5 000 per year up from the $100.
An ordinary prospecting licence will attract $500 per mining district up from the $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 $100 000, up from $5 000, while an application for chrome prospecting will be pegged at $500 from $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.