SIMBA RUSHWAYA
The Metropolitan Bank has partnered with the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) in a “strategic alliance” which will see the banking institution become exclusive financial advisors and fund the federation’s activities.
In return the ZMF membership will open accounts with Metbank and obtain a multi-purpose card that “will facilitate the recognition and general banking of small scale artisanal miners” whose contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now very significant.
“Today marks a historic day in the calendar of both ZMF and Metbank as it witnesses the birth of a strategic alliance of note. The alliance will bring a new dimension in areas such as legitimate recognition and appreciation of our artisanal and small scale miners as key contributors to our GDP, financial resourcing and financial inclusion of the same.
“Through a long and tedious, but productive engagement process, ZMF has seen it fit to appoint Metbank as its exclusive financial advisors and Metbank pledges this day, that it is willing and able to take up this task with unquestionable commitment,” said Metbank executive director Ephraim Chawoneka at the signing ceremony held in Harare on Tuesday.
Metbank will among other things initiate fundraising activities for ZMF, establish centres of excellence with collective resourcing, assist with general banking services and advocacy in the areas of e-identity for the artisanal miners and legislation.
Henrietta Rushwaya, the ZMF president said she welcomed the development which will ensure their membership channel their activities into the mainstream economy.
“We are grateful and welcome this development where we have a huge financial institution like Metbank come on board to assist the cause of scale miners because we are a very important sector in the economy,” Rushwaya said.
The development will ensure the small scale miners contribute in the formal economy unlike in the past when their proceeds largely evaded the mainstream economy.
Metbank will act as a conduit between ZMF membership and Fidelity Printers and Refiners, the gold buying arm of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). The ZMF membership, under this alliance, will deal directly with their financial advisors.
Artisanal gold miners, who produced 4,2 tonnes of the yellow metal in the first quarter of 2018, beat large-scale mining houses that produced three tonnes during the period, official data shows.
The small scale miners hope to meet a 28-tonne target for 2018 after producing 24,8 tonnes in 2017.
Small scale gold miners managed ― for the first time in more than 10 years ― to deliver more gold than large-scale mining houses last year, recovering from a three-tonne nadir recorded at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis in 2008.
However, this was still short of the 27-tonne peak reached in 1999.
Government has supported the artisanal miners who have increased production through the use of improved mineral processing technology following a $40 million gold development facility offered by the central bank, targeting 179 small-scale miners.
There are over 4 000 recorded gold deposits in Zimbabwe, but currently about 40 percent of these are being commercially worked on, according to the Ministry of Mines.
According to the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ), the significant rise in small-scale mining saw the sector contributing 47 percent of total gold output compared to 46 percent contributed by large gold mining companies last year.
Over 500 000 Zimbabweans are directly employed as artisanal miners, with over 3 million dependants eking a living from the trade.
