Gold miners draw down on US$20m facility
LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Gold miners have started drawing down on the US$20m facility administered by Fidelity Printers & Refiners (FPR) meant to ramp up production.
FPR acting general manager Peter Magaramombe told Business Times that the Gold Development Initiative Fund (GDIF) would help the sector achieve the US$4bn by 2023.
“Miners have started drawing down the US$20m and with this resource kitty, we expect the figures to improve further from this month up to the end of the year,” Magaramombe said.
He said gold deliveries demonstrate a “direct relationship” between quantities delivered and the supportive arrangements in place.
For example, in years where incentive schemes were put in place, more gold was delivered compared to years where such support was not in place, Magaramombe said.
FPR has 12 gold buying centres strategically located in the active gold regions to provide convenience to gold producers across the country.
About six gold buying centres will be established this year meant to increase coverage and mop as much gold as possible.
The GDIF was created primarily as a development finance unit for the capacitation of gold producers and working capital.
GDIF was supposed to provide access to affordable and “patient” credit or capital to gold miners, act as an empowerment tool for the local gold producers, provide financial solutions for gold mining problems and improve gold deliveries to FPR and export value for Zimbabwe.
Magaramombe said over 450 gold producers have benefited across all provinces of Zimbabwe since the fund’s inception.
This has seen gold deliveries increasing 47% to 18.940 tonnes during the first seven months of 2022 from 12.852 tonnes delivered during the same period last year due to improved mining policies.
Local gold producers are averaging 2.7 tonnes per month and at this pace the country may finish the year at 32.4 tonnes.
Of the total gold production during the first seven months, 11.4 tonnes came from small-scale miners who account for 60% of total deliveries.
Large-scale miners accounted for 7.49 tonnes during the last six months.
He said though the output is fairly good, there was still a long way to go to achieve an average of 8.3 tonnes per month to reach 100 tonnes a year.
The country’s gold export receipts went up 42% to US$1.7bn in 2021 from US$1.2bn earned during 2020 due to improved gold output and firm prices.
Gold deliveries to FPR soared 55% to record 29.6 tonnes in 2021 from 19.05 in 2020 on the back of timeous payments and incentives given to yellow metal producers.
Gold is now Zimbabwe’s second largest foreign currency earner after diaspora remittances, according to latest statistics obtained from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
