MMCZ confident of reaching US$12bn target

Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) general manager, Mr Tongai Mathew Muzenda has stressed the need for value addition of all minerals for the county to reap maximum benefits from the natural resources, saying the US$12 billion mining target is within reach.

Mr Muzenda said value addition has added benefits of employment creation.

MMCZ is a parastatal that was created to stop leakages and account for minerals in the country and oversees all other minerals in the country except for gold that is marketed and sold through Fidelity Printers.

MMCZ is responsible for US$8 billion of the targeted US$12 billion mining industry.

Government has set a target of attaining the US$12 billion mining industry by 2023 and this is expected to make the sector the bedrock of the economy.

Speaking recently on the sidelines of the African Diamond Producers Association conference in Victoria Falls, Mr Muzenda expressed confidence the country will meet the US$12 billion mining industry target this year, as all minerals under the purview of the state entity have performed well.

Government banned export of minerals in their raw form citing the need to promote value addition and beneficiation, in line with the country’s aspirations implemented through the National Development Strategy 1 which wants mineral exports to be at least partially processed in Zimbabwe before export to add value.

“We are on the right path and we should get to US$8 billion this year in 2023 because so many projects are underway which should give us another US$4 billion adding to the US$5 billion we got last year,” said Mr Muzenda.

“It is our role to encourage value addition and beneficiation of all minerals in the country as we will be exporting high value minerals.

“The country benefits as royalties are also based on high value meaning the country is benefiting.

“So value addition is the way to go and where possible to the last value and we should produce our own final products and create jobs for our people.”

He said MMCZ, together with other Government agencies, is working at reducing leakages of minerals.
The mining industry contributes over seven percent of formal jobs, 11 percent to Gross Domestic Product, over 74 percent of total goods and services and more than 50 percent of foreign direct investment, as well as a major contributor to infrastructure development.

Mr Muzenda noted that processing minerals before export also reduces transport costs as the country will be exporting real value minerals.

The country’s takeover as chair of the African Diamonds Producers Association (ADPA) and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) this year has positive implications for the country’s economic diplomacy-focused foreign policy as it amplifies the Second Republic’s image-building and international re-engagement drive.

He said the post’s place the country in the limelight as it will bring more international players.

ADPA is a 19-member grouping of regional diamond producers while the KPCS is a global body of diamond-producing nations with 52 participants, representing 85 countries, with the European Union and its Member States counting as a single participant.

As the new chair of ADPA, and the KPCS, President Mnangagwa has reiterated the country’s determination and commitment to effectively co-ordinate and consolidate the growth of the diamond sector, and called for the crafting of deliberate policies that mainstream beneficiation of minerals for increased local benefits.

In line with the African Union Agenda 2063, the President has said transforming the diamond sector, already on course in Zimbabwe, must anchor Africa’s modernisation, industrialisation, and development through scaling up higher value addition and beneficiation.-chronicle