Zim’s gold deliveries plunge
LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) in the first quarter of this year, plunged 20% to 6.194 in the first quarter of the year from the same period last year weighed down by heavy rains which effected mining.
In the same period last year, deliveries were 7.694 tonnes.
“Gold output has declined for the first quarter ended March 31 2023 to 6.194 tonnes from 7.694 tonnes during the comparable period last year due to heavy rains during the first two months of the year,” FGR general manager Peter Magaramombe told Business Times.
“As you can see, gold deliveries increased to 2.4 tonnes in March 2023 from 1.89 tonnes in February this year. Though deliveries are still in the negative compared to the same period, there were positive steps in the right direction in March,” Magaramombe said.
He said the rains have heavily impacted the small-scale gold miners, who contributed over 60% of the total gold production, as they are failing to mine due to high water levels.
Large-scale producers delivered 2.762 tonnes while small-scale miners delivered 3.431 tonnes to FGR during the past three months.
Magaramombe said there was a need to capacitate artisanal and small-scale miners to ramp up production in the wake of heavy rains.
In January this year, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Mthuli Ncube unveiled a US$10m loan facility for small-scale miners to boost production as the government targets an output of 60 tonnes this year.
The loan facility has a tenure of between three and six years.
The first US$5m is for artisanal gold small-scale miners’ funds while the other US$5m is for a gold service centre revolving facility.
The facility comes at a time when investment in the mining sector to scale up production is limited.
Most investors are reluctant to support the artisanal and small-scale miners due to the inherent risk and complex way of doing business by these miners.
Gold Miners Association of Zimbabwe CEO, Irvine Chinyenze, said the drawdown process should be expedited so that small-scale miners start utilising the US$10m facility to increase production.
The US$5m gold service centre revolving facility will result in the construction of six gold service centres to improve access to critical facilities by artisanal gold small-scale miners.
The implementing agency for the gold service centre revolving facility will be the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
The US$5m artisanal gold miners’ facility will be accessed through the Mining Loan Fund, which is administered by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.
The decline in gold figures comes at a time when Zimbabwe’s other leading foreign currency earner, tobacco, is also subdued, leaving the country on the edge.
