TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
An association of young miners has engaged the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and the Zimbabwe School of Mines (ZSM) to offer mining management training the constituency beginning next year.
Young Miners Foundation CEO Payne Kupfuwa said next year small scale miners will be trained on fundamentals in mining management.
“Next year (our members) will get the certificates in the fundamentals of small scale mining management certified by the ZSM,” Kupfuwa said, adding that his organisation was also working on a number of projects for the growth of the small scale miners.
“Apparently we have also grouped some trainees and other members into small capitalised mining companies that we are helping create partnerships with the Green Mining Capital.
“We are helping them register small capitalised mining companies so that they can also partner with investors. We have since started engaging partners such as the Empower Bank and some individual investors both locally and externally,” he said.
“Our patron, Chamu Chiwanza, is also helping us structure financial packages to boost our projects. We have also managed to do a young miners symposium, young miners conversions throughout the year.”
Kupfuwa said Covid-19 disrupted their operations.
He said small scale mining should be taken as a business not poverty driven initiative advocating the formalisation of small scale mining projects so that they grow from small to medium scale.
“We will also create opportunities in the value chain of mining ,growth brings employment, it brings in order, it also adds into the nation’s billion if it is gold. We are pushing for growth, we are targeting to develop 100 small scale mines to medium scale mines by 2025,” Kupfuwa said.
He added: “We also subscribe to the US$12bn government target by 2023 .We also subscribe to the Africa mining vision and African Continental Free Trade Area. So as Young Miners Foundation, we are continuing to engage different partners locally and internationally.”
Kupfuwa said his organisation was looking forward to creating 50 000 formal jobs by 2025.
