adminOliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
SMALL scale miners are targeting to deliver up to nine tonnes of gold to Fidelity Printers by the end of the year compared to about two tonnes last year.
Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation (ZMF) first vice president, Morgan Moyo, told Business Chronicle that in the first four months of the year small-scale miners had already delivered four tonnes of the yellow metal.
“As small-scale miners, we’re looking forward to increasing our production to around nine tonnes as more people are venturing into gold mining,” he said.
He said the target was possible as there would be minor disturbances from water due to reduced rainfall totals in the just ended season.
“A number of people are venturing into mining to sustain themselves and because of low rainfall, most of the shafts are already workable by this time of the year.
“The first four months of the year have already seen us delivering four tonnes of gold to Fidelity Printers,” said Moyo.
He said ZMF continues to encourage small-scale miners to deliver their gold to Fidelity Printers and other registered agencies to curb the smuggling of the yellow metal to countries such as neighbouring South Africa.
Moyo said while the government recognised the critical role played by small-scale miners in economic development, it was imperative to consider the reduction of taxes and other charges levied on the miners.
He said heavy taxation had a negative bearing on production output.
“We’re appealing to the government to reduce taxes and other charges being levied to the mining industry,” said Moyo.
Addressing delegates at the just ended 76th Chamber of Mines annual conference in Victoria Falls, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government was working on a new mining fiscal regime aimed at ensuring a win-win situation between the government and players in the mining industry.
He said the mining industry was subject to taxes and levies such as mineral royalties, corporate tax, Value Added Tax, customs duty, capital gains tax, withholding taxes on technical fees, remittances, royalties, dividends and interest earned on deposits.
Moyo said the government should also come up with a mechanism aimed at improving power supply in the mining sector to boost output.
Bubi Small-scale Miners Association secretary Musa Moyo said their operations were negatively affected by multiple charges from government agencies such as the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and Rural District Councils (RDCs).
“We’ve a challenge when it comes to charges that we’re being asked to pay by RDCs and EMA. For example, RDCs are demanding $300 development levy from small-scale miners, which to us is too high. When they set their annual budgets, as miners in their respective areas we’re never consulted but only to be told that we’ve to fork out so much as development fees,” he said.
“We also have challenges with EMA. For example, in Bubi District we’re made to pay EMA fines to EMA Bulawayo and EMA in Inyathi. Such charges add onto our production costs.” He said productivity in the small-scale mining industry could be enhanced through mechanisation.
The small scale miners implored the government to urgently assist small-scale miners with basic mining equipment from China under the $100 million facility.
Early this year, the government announced that it had signed a $100 million loan facility for the procurement of basic mining machinery such as compressors and jackhammers from China to support small-scale mining operations.
A miner with operations in Bubi and Masvingo, Ndabezinhle Ncube said the government should also look at setting up its own consultancy department that would charge the miners “reasonable” rates for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). Due to the absence of such consultancy from the government, he said they were subjected to paying $3,500 to private consultants for EIAs, which is expensive.
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