Gold deliveries reach the 2022 target
Gold deliveries to the country’s sole gold buyer and exporter Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) achieved the 2022 projected target of 35 tonnes marking an 18.9 per cent increase from 29.7 tonnes delivered in 2021.
Rudairo Mapuranga
The increase in deliveries is attributed to Artisanal and Small Scale Miners (ASM) whose deliveries increased by 30.3 per cent to 24.1 tonnes from 18.5 tonnes delivered in 2021. Deliveries by large-scale producers were approximately 11.2 tonnes in 2022 as well as in 2021.
However, deliveries during the last quarter of 2022 decreased by 10.3 per cent from approximately 10.7 tonnes delivered in 2021 to 9.6 delivered in 2022.
Experts attributed the improved contribution of small-scale producers to timeous payments to the miners by Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR), the country’s main buyer of the yellow metal.
In 2021, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced a 5 per cent incentive for gold deliveries above 20kg by small-scale miners. This was done in an attempt to curb rampant smuggling of the precious metal.
During the period January to November 2022, gold deliveries increased by 31 per cent to 33.3 tonnes from the same period last year. During the period, Artisanal and Small Scale Miners (ASM) contributed 22.9 tonnes while the primary producers contributed 10.4 tonnes.
Gold deliveries also increased by 33.8 per cent during the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period last year, raising the prospect that Zimbabwe might achieve the 35-tonne target for this year.
According to FGR General Manager Mr Peter Magaramombe, the massive increase in deliveries has been necessitated by a host of measures taken by FGR and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) including timeous payments and incentives.
“The 5% Gold incentives to the small-scale miners are key, timeous payment to our miners, and incremental good incentives to the large-scale miners,” Magaramombe said.
The 33.784 per cent increase saw 29 460.6532 Kg of gold being delivered by the end of October 2022 compared to 22 024.3507 kgs delivered during the same period last year.
Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners (ASM) have contributed 67.8 per cent of the total deliveries, sending 19 987.6292 kgs compared to 9 473.0240 kgs delivered by the large-scale producers. ASM deliveries increased by 54.3 per cent from 12952.3801 kgs delivered during the same period last year with large-scale producers’ gold deliveries increasing by 4.4 per cent from 9071.97 kgs delivered during the same period in 2021.
Gold deliveries to FGR in the nine months to September 2022 grew by 36 per cent to 25,7 tonnes, from 18,9 tonnes in the same period a year earlier.
According to FGR statistics seen by this publication, overall deliveries stood at a 41.0734 per cent increase to 22290.41 kgs during the period January to August of 2022 compared to 15800.57 kgs delivered during the same period last year.
Large-scale producers increased their gold delivery by 5.025 per cent to 1086.5330 kgs in August 2022 compared to 1034.54 kgs in the same period last year. The Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners (ASM) increased their deliveries by 18.27 per cent to 2263.2531 kgs in August 2022 from 1913.48 kgs in August 2021.
FGR is confident that gold deliveries to FGR will reach 40 tonnes this year as a result of notable expansion projects by Large producers as well as the growth in ASM projects.