LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Zimbabwe’s sole buyer and marketer of gold, Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR), has shortened the time it takes to settle for gold delivered to five days from two weeks as it moves to boost more deliveries, it has been learnt.
FPR acting general manager Peter Magaramombe said timeous payment was critical in gold production.
“We are (now) paying within five days,” Magaramombe told Business Times.
His remarks comes after a latest report showed that players in the sector were facing payment delays for gold delivered to Fidelity. They said delays have hamstrung their operations.
But Magaramombe said the submissions by mining executives were made before FPR implemented its new settlement time frame.
“I just got in touch with the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe leadership to ask them if their members are not getting their money within the five days as per international payments time frame and they responded that the submissions were done before we have started paying within five days,” Magaramombe said.
He said Fidelity changed its payment model in June where small scale miners were paid on spot and the larger miners within five days.
On top of timeous payments, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe cut royalties and the cost of importing cash on small scale miners to improve gold production in the country amid indications that the yellow metal output was going on a downward slide.
From June 17 2021, gold deliveries went up by over 100% to an average of three tonnes from an average of 1.4 tonnes during most periods of 2020.
Experts say the output would have breached 30 tonnes if authorities had improved the operating environment earlier.
Miners have projected output to reach 29 tonnes this year from around 19.05 tonnes last year. RBZ governor John Mangudya projects a 3.4% increase to 22.5 tonnes this year.
Several mining houses are planning to ramp up production in 2022.
According to the survey, three miners indicated they will resume operations before the end of 2021 and ramp up production in 2022.
Survey findings show that mining industry capacity industry capacity utilisation would be around 80% and will go up to 83% in 2022.
Zimbabwe is targeting 100 tonnes of gold per year by 2023.
However, experts said the figure is likely not going to be reached with a number of challenges in the gold sector.
