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ZIMBABWE Miners Federation (ZMF) has embarked on a nationwide headcount of small-scale gold miners in a bid to account for all the gold being produced in the country as well as enabling them to access a $100 million credit facility.
Government recently signed a landmark deal with Chinese company Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group that would see the small-scale miners accessing loans to purchase equipment to improve viability, mining standards and is expected to boost annual gold production to 14 tonnes.
In an interview on the sidelines of a meeting with chiefs and other stakeholders at Turtle 16 mine in Silobela, ZMF president Retired Senior Assistant Commissioner Apolonia Munzwerengwi said the head count would also curb smuggling of gold as well as informal trading which in turn deprives the country of potential revenue.
Government recently identified 28 leakages of gold that have seen gold output dropping from 26 tonnes per annum to only three tonnes per annum in recent years a development which saw the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development setting up a taskforce comprising members of the ministry, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Republic Police, Fidelity and Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe to plug gaps.
Deputy Minister Engineer Fred Moyo confirmed that the ministry had set up a 25-member taskforce in each province subdivided into five groups to descend on all gold mines, milling plants and custom millers.
He said the country was losing potential revenue through smuggling, side marketing, and inflating of operational costs while some companies were declaring less than they would have extracted or realised from gold sales.
“Some companies have been smuggling gold outside the country and refining it in neighbouring countries. Some have not been declaring all the gold that they would have realised. Also we didn’t have some metallurgical standards in terms of gold processing. We had no technology to determine the metal units of other minerals in gold and as a result we have been losing much.
“We are monitoring all of them to ensure that what they declared, their operational costs and other expenses are corresponding with the gold they would have realised.
If we discover that any company has declared less we are going to withdraw their operating licence,” he said.
Deputy Minister Moyo said the ministry would also be monitoring compliance by these gold mining companies.
“We are also going to be looking at their compliance in terms of certificates, production records, wage bill, and operational costs. We want to ensure that the equipment that is coming from China will find us with a system that protects us from gold leakages. We will plug all the gaps,” he said.
Rtd Snr Asst Comm Munzwerengwi said the country had more than 500 000 registered small-scale and artisanal miners and they would soon tour all the provinces collecting data on the actual number of small to medium-scale miners so that they benefit from the scheme.
“We are going to embark on a countrywide tour meeting all the miners particularly those in the countryside, assess their activities getting all the information on what is coming out so that we will be able to report exactly what is on the ground. We have a programme that we have put in place and we are waiting for resources for us to go around the country.
“This programme will be followed by restructuring of provincial executives. This will assist us in data collection on all our miners in each and every mining district as well as information on the actual number of miners in a province.
“We intend to lobby for mechanisation of small-scale miners, therefore, by so doing we will be able to know how many miners are there in each district, in each province what do they want for their activities to be viable according to their capacity.
We are going to put them in clusters and identify their needs and the type of equipment that they want.
We have basic miners, some are level one and others are middle miners,” she said.
Rtd Snr Asst Comm Munzwerengwi said the data collection and census would help them curb gold smuggling.
“That is our priority issue to ensure that our miners get equipment. We are waiting for the ministry to roll out the programme but first we have to give them the beneficiary list hence the need for the nationwide tour and restructuring programmes as well as the data collection.
During the tour we are going to conduct awareness campaigns to ensure that all the gold produced by artisanal miners is sold to Fidelity Printers,” she said.
Online Reporter