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Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Mr Trinos Nkomo said the launch of the fund in every mining region of the country was an ongoing exercise meant to empower small-scale miners.
The $1 million fund is meant to capacitate small-scale miners’ operations through the provision of basic mining equipment.
Mr Nkomo said the Government would in the next few weeks launch MILF in Masvingo Province following its successful launch in Matabeleland North recently.
“As miners, we are very excited about the MILF because it depicts the good intention by Government through the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to support small-scale miners. Soon the fund will be launched in Masvingo. Recently, Matabeleland North was used as a launch pad of the MILF by the Minister of Mines and Mining Development,” said Mr Nkomo in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said Government and ZMF were working together to organise dates to launch MILF in other mining regions adding that their next port of call after Masvingo would be the Midlands province.
“MILF is not going to end in Masvingo; it will be taken to the Midlands until all the mining regions are covered,” he said.
He said empowering small-scale miners through MILF would also see communities in which mining activities take place benefiting through employment creation and diversity of businesses that add value to the whole chain.
“Mining is mostly done in rural areas and in the outskirts of urban areas where such places are lagging behind in terms of development. As small-scale miners are empowered, we expect to see the countryside benefiting not only in terms of employment creation but there will be a diversity of business that sprout as a result of improved mining activities,” said Mr Nkomo.
Meanwhile, the ZMF sent its chief executive officer Mr Wellington Takavarasha to attend the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) symposium on small-scale mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that started on Tuesday and ended yesterday.
“We are also participating at the symposium in the DRC and we are being represented by our chief executive. The purpose of the symposium is to share information on small-scale mining operations in the Comesa region,” he said.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu has said Government came up with MILF in view of small scale miners’ contribution to economic development.
Official figures from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development show that between January and April this year, small-scale miners produced one third of gold output in the country.
Online Reporter