Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

Areas with a high concentration of gold miners have the highest number of child marriages and teenage pregnancies in Zimbabwe, a new research has revealed.

A survey on child marriages conducted by Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) showed that illegal gold miners trigger child marriages.

Revealing the preliminary findings on the national enquiry on sexual exploitation and abuse of young girls and child marriages, ZGC chairperson Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe said gold panners lured young girls with luxuries and money in return for sex.

“In Mashonaland East — Mudzi district, wards 13, 14, 15 and 18 are considered hotspots for child marriages and sexual exploitation mainly due to gold panning activities in these areas. The gold panners lure young girls with “nice things” and end up impregnating them,” Mukahanana-Sangarwe said.

“In Matabeleland South — Umzingwane district, teen pregnancies are usually a result of child marriages. Amakorokoza activities include sexual relationships with girls and young women.”

She also said some areas of Gweru were hotspots for child marriages due to poverty and the prevalence of gold panners.

“In Midlands province, Gweru rural district areas such as St Faith and Shamrock are popular gold panning areas. Children as young as 13 years are involved in sex work at St Faith shops, where there is gold panning,” she said.

“Poverty was cited as a major push factor which made the girls vulnerable, resulting in children running away from their homes. Parents in the area are not valuing education.”

Mukahanana-Sangarwe expressed concern over two nine-year-old girls who were impregnated in the country, and urged Parliament to monitor the implementation of the Marriage Act.

Newsday

The government of Zimbabwe in an endeavour to enable the growth and development of Artisanal and Small scale miners (ASM), will establish the Mining Industry Loan Fund to support miners through mining established loans and plant and equipment hire loan schemes.

Rudairo Mapuranga

The ASM has continued to show its relevance to economic revival with the sector currently contributing over 67 per cent of gold deliveries to the country’s sole gold buyer and exporter Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR).

According to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Prof Mthuli Ncube in his 2023 National Budget Statement presented to the Parliament of Zimbabwe yesterday the ASM continue to dominate the mining industry therefore it was of paramount importance that the government supports them for economic revival as well as responsible sourcing.

He said the National Budget will support the establishment of the Gold Service Centre as part of a drive to promote the formalization of the ASM as well as the curbing of illicit financial flows.

“The mining sector, especially the gold sector, is dominated by artisanal and small-scale miners operating informally. The sub-sector contributes significantly to gold deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refineries, employs a significant number of workers and is a source of livelihood for rural communities.

“Therefore, Government will continue to assist the small-scale miners to adopt environmentally friendly, safe and sustainable mining methods.

“The 2023 National Budget will support the establishment of Gold Service Centres as part of the drive to promote the formalisation of activities of the artisanal and small-scale miners, with a target of having five fully established centres by the end of 2023. The centres will be located in areas of high activity by small-scale miners to facilitate ease of processing and marketing of gold.

“Further support will be extended to the Mining Industry Loan Fund to support small-scale miners through mining establishment loans and plant and equipment hire loan schemes,” Prof Mthuli Ncube said.

The government of Zimbabwe has set aside an amount of $1.6 billion under the 2023 National Budget to ensure that the mining Cadastre information management system is online for the rest of the country next year.

Anerudo Mapuranga

Through the National Budget Statement presented to the Parliament of Zimbabwe yesterday, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Prof Mthuli Ncube said the rollout of the Mining Cadastre system was in its final stages with data capturing in progress.

Prof Mthuli Ncube said the pilot project in Manicaland is working effectively and the government targets to make the whole country go online next year.

“Government is now into the final stages of completing the computerised mining cadastre system. Data capturing is in progress, while work on the platform for clients to apply online for the mining title is at an advanced stage.

“Manicaland is now operating online, with the target for the rest of the mining provinces in the country to be online in 2023.

“Accordingly, in support of the aforesaid programme, an amount of ZWL$1.6 billion has been set aside under the 2023 National Budget,” Prof Mthuli Ncube said.

Once operational, the cadastre system will enhance transparency and accountability in mining title management, by eliminating overlapping mining claims, strengthening property rights and security of tenure within the mining sector. It will also improve the government’s regulatory capacity through improved efficiency and revenue collection.

RioZim Limited (RioZim) says power supply challenges remain a key risk to the sustainability of its operations.

Despite the company putting in place diesel generators to lessen production stoppages, in its trading update for the third quarter (Q3) 2022, the group said it remained reliant on the power utility Zesa for consistent power supply to run optimally.

“Power supply challenges worsened during the quarter due to acute load shedding as the country battled with erratic local power generation coupled with inadequate supplementary power imports. Production was, therefore, significantly hampered during the quarter due to power supply challenges,” the group said.

“Power outages are taking up to 30% of the available production time, hence adversely affecting production in a very material way. Engagements with the power utility are ongoing on the rehabilitation of the unreliable power infrastructure mainly at Renco Mine.”

The group added that its subsidiary, Dalny Mine was placed under full care and maintenance due to inadequate foreign currency as it requires a huge capital investment to resuscitate underground operations.

Because of power supply challenges, inadequate foreign currency and lack of production at Dalny Mine, its gold production fell 6% compared to the same period last year.

 “Power and access to foreign currency earnings are critical to the needs of the company. Both of these continue to be extremely scarce. The company has had to invest heavily in diesel generators which required foreign currency and power generated by diesel largely costs more than normal power,” it said.

During the period, Cam and Motor Mine focused on stabilising and optimising production at its recently commissioned Biological Oxidation (BIOX) plant post commissioning in April 2022.

“Production increased at a steady rate throughout the period and closed the quarter with an 83% growth from the prior year comparative period. The mine operated its BIOX plant throughout the quarter and despite encountering some normal teething challenges, production steadily increased towards the optimal level. However, production at Cam and Motor was adversely affected by power outages,” the miner said.

“Dalny Mine was placed under care and maintenance during the period due to lack of open pit ore sources with consistent grades as the current pits are showing low payability. In order to sustain care and maintenance costs, the mine embarked on small-scale mining activities as the available open pit resources are uneconomic to mine using traditional large-scale mining methods.”

As for Renco Mine, production for the quarter declined by 15% compared to Q3 2021 mainly attributed to increased power supply challenges.

RioZim invested in additional generators to increase coverage of backup power in an effort to minimise production disruptions.

The Empress Nickel Refinery (ENR) remained under care and maintenance throughout the quarter.

Associate RZM Murowa (Private) Limited recorded a 24% growth in production compared to Q3 2021 at the back of the newly-commissioned high-volume 500tph plant which became operational at the beginning of the quarter.

The associate continued to process pre-mined low-grade ores from its extensive stockpiles albeit at increased volumes from the new plant.

Going forward, the group said it was focused on ramping up production to optimal levels for its two key projects; the BIOX plant project at Cam and Motor and the new processing plant at RZM Murowa (Private) Limited.

RioZim said it was engaging authorities in various capacities to raise foreign currency retention thresholds on export proceeds from the current 60% as this has proven to be inadequate considering the group’s requirements.

“Notwithstanding the measures implemented by the authorities to stabilise exchange rates, the pricing of local inputs remained substantially high due to speculative tendencies. Local inputs continued to be pegged at nefarious prices in local currency which left the company heavily reliant on the importation of raw materials that require foreign currency. With the company only retaining 60% of its export proceeds in USD, the company continued to be short of foreign currency to meet all its operational and capital expenditure requirements.” the group said.

Source: Newsday