Gold glitters, set for record breaking output

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

 

Gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) reached 29.46 tonnes in the year to October as output of the yellow metal is shoo-in to surpass last year’s output of 29.6 tonnes on the back of timeous payments and incentives given to producers.

The miners still have two months before the end of the year.

The highest ever output recorded was 33.3 tonnes which was delivered in 2018.

FGR general manager Peter Magaramombe told Business Times that the 35 tonnes target was within reach.

“With the way the gold deliveries are coming to FGR, we will certainly surpass the target due to timely payments and incentives we are giving to our gold miners,” Magaramombe said.

He added: “With the way the gold output has risen from August up to now, we are poised for a record-breaking year as far as yellow metal deliveries to FGR are concerned.”

The Zimbabwe Miners Federation CEO, Wellington Takavarasha, said the stellar performance was due to constant meetings with the Mines and Mining Development Ministry and Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe where we discuss sustainable mining issues, ease of doing business in mining and formalisation of the small-scale sector which gives small-scale miners assurance to deliver to

“Previously, we have had some issues with Rural District Councils and Environmental Management Agency but we have finally found each other and mining is much easier,” Takavarasha said.

The year to date deliveries rose 34% to 29.46 tonnes from 22.02 tonnes in the same period last year.

Small-scale miners contributed 68% of the total deliveries with 19.98 tonnes and big mining houses contributed 9.4 tonnes.

Government granted miners incentives to deliver more gold to FGR.

This year, gold is the largest foreign currency earner beating platinum and diaspora remittances.

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 central bank has 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 capacitation of small-scale miners to ramp up production.

“Some small-scale miners are reluctant to sell to FGR 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.

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.

On Tuesday international gold prices stood at US $53 665 per kilogramme and Fidelity was paying US$53 591 per kg to those who delivered above 20kg.

The government has moved to provide equipment in gold centres to move towards helping the attainment of US$4bn gold export revenue.

The government wants to establish more new gold centres following a sudden increase in output.

 

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button