Govt avails $60 mln capitalisation package of small scale miners

Tinashe Makichi

HARARE – Small scale miners are set to receive a $60 million financial boost from Government for capitalisation of their operations as part of efforts to boost their contribution to national mineral production.

According to information obtained by Business Times, small scale chrome miners will receive $50 million, which will be channeled towards boosting production in anticipation of the establishment of a stainless steel plant in the Midlands province. An additional $10 million will be directed towards small gold miners.

Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando confirmed that there are facilities being put in place to boost production by small scale miners across the country.

“We are structuring facilities aimed at capitalising small scale miners. $50 million will be channeled towards chrome while an additional $10 million will go towards boosting gold production as a gold fund,” said Chitando.

A well-placed source said Minister Chitando will be meeting small scale miner’s representative body, Zimbabwe Miners Federation to discuss disbursement modalities of the facilities.

Recently, in support of small scale chrome miners, the Moti Group and its local partners, Sakunda Holdings sealed a 20 year mining deal with Government of Zimbabwe aimed at formalizing and strengthening the small-scale mining sector in the country.

The deal dubbed Zimbabwe Motivation Mining (ZMM) is a new development programme that the Moti Group has proposed to strengthen small scale miners, with Government coming in as partner in a private-public partnership arrangement.

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