LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR), the country’s sole buyer and marketer of the yellow metal, fell 22% to 1.853 tonnes in the month of February 2024 from 2.38 tonnes recorded in January this year, largely due to subpar performance from small scale miners.
The small scale miners delivered 0.864 tonnes against primary producers delivered 0.989 tonnes.
This was disclosed by FGR general manager Peter Magaramombe.
“The miners delivered 1.853 tonnes in February 2024 from 2.38 tonnes in January 2024 with primary producers leading for the first time in close to two years,” Magaramombe said.
“Gold deliveries fell 2% in February 2024 to 1.853 tonnes from 1.895tonnes in February 2023.”
He said lack of proper equipment and lack of capital have greatly affected small scale gold deliveries.
“We want to open more buying centres and capacitate the small scale miners to ramp up production. We are not panicking with this gold delivery set back as we have moved to provide funding to some small scale miners,” he said.
Magaramombe expects gold prices to remain firm despite the soft international commodity prices in other minerals.
