LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Zimbabwe’s gold export receipts rose 13% to US$2.04bn in 2022 from US$1.8bn in 2021 due to increased gold production and firm international commodity prices.
The impressive export receipts set a strong groundwork for the US$4bn target this year.
Experts call for the relaxation of the mining sector regulations and double the current incentives to attain the hopes of reaching the US$4bn target.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya told Business Times that gold remains a key commodity for the country and more incentives will be considered to ramp up production.
“Gold export receipts reached US$2.04bn in 2022 from US$1.8bn the previous year due to increased output and if we continue to capacitate miners we will march towards this year’s export revenue target,” Mangudya said.
The development comes as the gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery reached 35.28 tonnes last year from 29.6 tonnes in 2021 on the back of timeous payments and incentives given to producers.
The output surpassed the previous record of 33.3 tonnes achieved five years ago.
The stellar output comes despite a dip in December deliveries which fell by more than half to 1.94 tonnes, the lowest for the year on disruptions caused by heavy rains.
Small-scale miners contributed 68% of the total output at 24.09 tonnes with primary producers contributing 11.18 tonnes.
At 35.28 tonnes, the country’s average deliveries were 2.94 tonnes per month.
The Zimbabwe Miners Federation CEO, Wellington Takavarasha, said he expects a better year in 2023 as more incentives are expected to encourage more deliveries to FGR.
“We are ready for 2023 as we move to reach the target.
More incentives and capital are expected to ramp up production,” he said.
The government granted miners incentives to deliver more gold to Fidelity Gold Refinery.
In the past few years, the yellow metal struggled due to payment delays by FGR and low prices compared to those obtained on the international market.
However, payments are now being done timeously and prices are at par with those on the international markets.
In addition, the government also scrapped taxes on small scale miners to encourage deliveries through formal channels.
Analysts, however, said there was a need to review retention levels for large-scale miners and the capacitation of small-scale miners to ramp up production.
“Some small-scale miners are reluctant to sell to Fidelity because they know that the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority will access their information.
They prefer selling to a parallel market where the tax collector does not have access to their records,” an industry player said.
Fidelity Gold Refinery general manager Peter Magaramombe said there were plans to increase presence by establishing more gold buying centres in all active regions.
“We are facilitating a loan facility to capacitate existing and new gold mining ventures to increase production. We will also retain the favourable currently obtaining incentive regime and lobby for policies that promote investments into the gold mining sector,” Magaramombe said.
FGR has set this year’s target at around 40 tonnes against the government’s initial target of 100 tonnes.
