Gvt to collect records on hammer mills to curb side marketing
The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has implored strategies to ensure all gold produced in the country is delivered to the country’s sole gold buyer and exporter Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) with the latest being to collect records on all hammer mills and mobile processing units which have become rampant in mining provinces.
Although there is no law in the country which supports the existence of hammer mills and mobile processing units, there has been a proliferation of these sites leading to the rampant side marketing of the yellow metal.
Speaking at the gold mobilisation deployment workshop in Harare on Monday, the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Hon Zhemu Soda said the government will continue to improve how gold mobilisation exercises are conducted to ensure responsible sourcing.
“As we continue to improve the manner in which we conduct the exercise, the teams should continue with innovative ways of inspecting plants at each stage of production across the whole value chain. It is also important to note that this time around teams will be required to collect records on all hammer mills and mobile gold processing units which have become rampant in the provinces. This will help the MMMD to account for the gold that these illegal operators are producing with the hope of ensuring that this gold also finds its way to FGR,” Hon Soda said.
In an effort to increase gold deliveries through official channels, the government on Monday deployed 10 teams to 6 provinces namely Masvingo, Matabeleland North, Mashonaland Central, Midlands, Manicaland and Mashonaland West to carry out the 2023 Third Quarter Gold Mobilization, monitoring and surveillance Exercise.
The country produced 35 tonnes of the yellow metal last year and is targeting to produce at least 40 tonnes this year, however, during the period January to August 2023 there has been a 13 per cent decrease compared to the same period last year.
“The gold sector in Zimbabwe has proved to be strategic to the mining industry and the national economy at large. Gold has remained one of the major foreign currency earners in Zimbabwe. In 2022 the gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery stood at 35.2 tonnes which was above the set target.
“The 2023 gold deliveries to FGR set target stand at 40 tonnes. The key to realising this target is the plugging of side markets which are a pariah to our efforts in the mining sector and to the development that we hope to see achieved. For 2023 from January to August, the gold deliveries to FGR sit at 19.335 tonnes against a target of 40t by the end of the year. In 2022 for the month of January to August a total of 22.29 tonnes was delivered, this represents a 13.2 % decrease. Hence, ladies and gentlemen, there is a need to employ strategies to decrease the rampant side marketing of gold,” Minister Soda said.
According to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development Mr Pfungwa Kunaka, the send-off is going to profer strategies on how the government can encourage the sale of gold to the formal market.
“This send-off workshop is designed to bring together stakeholders from the gold industry to discuss the challenges of curbing gold leakage and to develop solutions. We will establish the scale and scope of the gold leakage problem, the factors that contribute to gold leakage and the best practices for curbing gold leakage,” Kunaka said.