LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Zimbabwe’s gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) dipped 16% to 8.57 tonnes in the first four months of 2023 from the 10.176 tonnes delivered during the same period last year weighed down by heavy rains, which affected mining activities.
The export receipts also fell due to the decreased output, despite the firm commodity prices, which averaged around US$57,000 per kilogramme.
“Gold output has continued on the downward trend when compared to the same period last year due to the fact that we are yet to recover from very low output during the first two months caused by heavy rains.
“From March the deliveries are almost similar to the yellow metal output achieved the previous year,” FGR general manager Peter Magaramombe told Business Times.
Gold deliveries fell 4% to 2.376 tonnes in April 2023 against 2.481 tonnes achieved in the same period last year.
“As you can see, gold deliveries have peaked up though they are still in the negative compared to the same period, there were positive steps in the right direction from March,” he said.
Gold export earnings fell 19% to US$376.73m in the first quarter of 2023 from US$463.10m attained in the prior comparative period, attributed to low deliveries to the country’s sole buyer and marketer of the yellow metal FGR.
The plunge in gold export receipts comes at a time when the Qatar-headquartered broadcasting network Al Jazeera exposed how gold was smuggled out of Zimbabwe through illicit deals thereby robbing the country of over US$1.2bn in potential revenue.
He said the rains have heavily impacted the small-scale gold miners, who contributed over 60% of the total gold production, as they were failing to mine due to high water levels.
Large-scale producers delivered 2.762 tonnes while small-scale miners delivered 3.431 tonnes to FGR during the first quarter.
FGR is advocating for the capacitation of artisanal and small-scale miners to ramp up production in the wake of heavy rains.
In January this year, the Treasury unveiled a US$10m loan facility for small-scale miners to boost production as the government targets an output of 60 tonnes this year.
The loan facility has a tenure of between three and six years.
The first US$5m is for artisanal gold small-scale miners’ funds while the other US$5m is for a gold service centre revolving facility.
The facility comes at a time when investment in the mining sector is limited as most investors are reluctant to support the artisanal and small-scale miners due to the inherent risk and complex way of doing business by these miners.
The US$5m gold service centre revolving facility will result in the construction of six gold service centres to improve access to critical facilities by artisanal gold small-scale miners.
The implementing agency for the gold service centre revolving facility will be the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
The US$5m artisanal gold miners’ facility will be accessed through the Mining Loan Fund, which is administered by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.
