The move by Zimbabwe’s sole gold buyer and exporter, Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR), to add gold-buying centres in the country is making a positive impact towards achieving set targets, FGR General Manager Peter Magaramombe has said.
Rudairo Mapuranga
According to Magaramombe, the establishment of new centres in the last five years has led to an increase in deliveries.
In 2022, under Magaramombe’s leadership, FGR established two gold centres, leading to the achievement of the country’s gold production target of 35 tonnes, with FGR buying 35.6 tonnes during the year. However, deliveries decreased by 25 per cent in 2023 to 30.1 tonnes attributed to excessive rainfall in the first quarter of the year.
“We have a total of 17 gold buying centres now, we added five in the last five years, from 12. The new centres are contributing very close to set targets,” Magaramombe said.
The FGR General Manager said FGR has implemented the Gold Development Initiatives Fund (GDIF) and mobile buying units to enhance the delivery of gold.
“We are paying top prices benchmarked to the London Bullion Market Association. We also have the Gold Development Initiatives Fund to assist the artisanal and small-scale miners to increase their gold output as well as increasing the number of gold buying centres, mobile gold buying units to cover gold rushes, elution plant monitoring to plug gold leakages, and gold buying agents to cover areas where FGR does not have reach,” Magaramombe said.