Gold deliveries clock 33 tonnes

A total of 33,31 tonnes of gold have been delivered to Fidelity Printers and Refiners between January and November this year as the country’s mining sector continues to boost its output.

This is a significant increase from 25,36 tonnes delivered during the same period last year.

The jump in output this year reflects 31,3 percent growth when compared to last year.

Small to medium scale miners continue to lead the pack in terms of production volumes after they delivered a cumulative 22,95 tonnes in the past 11 months up from 15,21 tonnes last year.

Gold

Large scale mines delivered 10,36 tonnes compared to 10,15 tonnes they delivered during the same period last year. The strong performance by the gold sub-sector indicates that it has the potential to meet the US$12 billion mining industry target by 2023.
Commenting on the latest report, Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) chief executive officer, Mr Wellington Takavarasha, said increased gold output was indicative of more collaboration and hard work by different stakeholders.

“Gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners have greatly improved because of increased collaboration between stakeholders. These include the Chamber of Mines representing conglomerates and ZMF representing small scale miners,” he said.

Mr Takavarasha said there have been several meetings and review of Government policies meant to boost production.
He said unlike in the past when the approach has been vindictive, the situation now was positive engagements between Government and miners.

“This has greatly improved the relationship between miners and state agencies,” said Mr Takavarasha.
He said Government has also come up with incentives for small scale miners and this has boosted production.

“Last year there was US$10 million, which was set aside for small scale miners and this helped to capacitate the miners and the availability of cash at Fidelity has also improved operations,” said Mr Takavarasha. — chronicleoczw