LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Zimbabwe’s gold deliveries increased 47% in the first seven months of this year to 18.940 tonnes from 12.852 tonnes achieved in the prior comparative period on the incentives.
Local gold producers are averaging 2.7 tonnes per month and at this rate, Zimbabwe may produce 32 tonnes of the yellow metal this year.
Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR) acting general manager Peter Magaramombe told Business Times that gold production is expected to peak in September going onwards to surpass 35 tonnes by the year end.
“As at the end of July 2022, we were at more than 18 tonnes from close to 13 tonnes delivered in the same period last year due to incentives put in place by the central bank which encouraged miners to deliver to FPR,” Magaramombe said.
Of that, the small-scale miners delivered 11.4 tonnes in the period under review, while big mining houses accounted for 7.49 tonnes.
The Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe CEO, Isaac Kwesu said the good prices are covering up for the low production which is below expectations.
“We should ramp up production to benefit from the firm commodity prices,” Kwesu said.
From the current statistics obtained from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, gold is now the second largest foreign currency earner after diaspora remittances.
Experts say there is a need to review retention levels for the large scale miners and capacitation of small scale miners to ramp up production.
Experts say there is a need to introduce new policies to ramp up production and capitalise on firm strong commodity prices which are above US$61 000 since the advent of the Russia/Ukraine war.
Magaramombe said there is a combination of both good gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refineries and firm international prices.
With pricing firming due to Eastern Europe war and global inflation, large scale miners will get large export revenues thereby ramping up production.
Magaramombe said while output is fairly good, there is still a long way to go to achieve an average of 8.3 tonnes per month to reach 100 tonnes a year.
Yesterday, international gold prices stood at US$57 612 per kilogramme.
FPR was, however, paying about US$55 000 per kg.
