Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

The Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) is targeting to rake in US$50 million from the gemstones industry by the end of this year, a feat to be achieved through bringing in gemstones from producing communities into the formal economy, an official has revealed.

Prince Sunduzani

The entity, responsible for the marketing and sale of minerals in the country, says it has initiated a mop-up exercise of the precious stones, which are believed to be in abundance in the mining communities.

The resources of semi precious stones in Zimbabwe are estimated to be vast their total value is estimated at $20 billion.

The country hosts about 33 different types of semi-precious minerals. The minerals are under-explored, so the estimated number of the types and value would be way below the actual.

These minerals are easily found mined, sometimes just collected or picked in the fields.

Mining of semi-precious stones in Zimbabwe is dominated by Artisanal Miners who sell informally to foreign dealers, mainly the Congolese, Mozambicans, Pakistanis, Indians and Chinese who come to their mining sites, some of whom are cartels.

Miners do not appreciate the value of these minerals hence they sell them cheaply to these dealers

As part of its drive to attain the $50 million figure, MMCZ is going to set up mineral buying centres in gemstone mining communities to sweep gemstones within the producing communities, which have been slipping into the hands of these illicit traders who have been undercharging mining communities.

Speaking in an interview on the side lines of the gemstones industry awareness workshop held at a local Hotel in Harare, MMCZ deputy general Manager-Marketing Mr Masimba Chandavengerwa said the company is putting in enacting measures to meet this monumental target.

He said, “We are focusing on buying from producing provinces. Our focus now is to go out there. We have been allowed by the ministry to go and mop up all the gemstones that are out there,

“We think that with proper education, most of the people who are holding on to the gemstones will see the benefit of coming to the formal channel, which is MMCZ.

Mr Chanda said the target was achievable, given the number of gemstones that the country is losing through the informal market.

He called on Gemstone stakeholders to draft an action plan to catalyse this process so that the country does not continue losing through illicit financial gemstone trade and overnight sales.

Low quantities of semi precious stones are coming to MMCZ, the corporation had in the past not been serious about their marketing as it is not viable to organize small consignments.

Speaking at the same event, Zimbabwe Miners Federation CEO Mr Wellington Takavarasha challenged the MMCZ to offer competitive prices to encourage individuals to sell through o formal channels.

He said MMCZ’s pricing system was one of the reasons why Miners were choosing the informal route, thus defrauding the country of much-needed gemstone revenue.

Takavarasha also urged the government to enhance the value addition of the gemstones and design laws that enhance gemstone mining, as the sector is being under utilised.

“Miners have complained about the MMCZ pricing system. People have come up with their gemstones and say the value that is being given by MMCZ does not tally with international world market standards. So as a result, people then go into illicit trade. There is also inadequate legislation and limited accountability,” he said.

Zimbabwe is losing millions of dollars through the unauthorized export of scrap metal as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has not received any tax revenue from scrap export, an official has unearthed.

Rudairo Mapuranga

Speaking during a closed-door meeting hosted by the Zimbabwe Institute of Foundries (ZIF) in Harare last week officials from the RBZ said since the ban of scrap metal exports around 2010 the government has not recorded a single export of the product. Begging the question, where has all the revenue from the exports been going?

” We haven’t given any CD1 forms for the export of scrap metals, as far as our records are concerned, the country is not exporting scrap metal ” the official said.

Reserve Bank Exchange Control requires that all exports from Zimbabwe be declared on Form CD1 through the Banks who raised such documentation in a system called CEPECS. All exporters are thus required to make a once-off registration with one of the banks by providing information required on the Registration Form for Exporters.

So the absence of these forms reeks of a grand scheme of corruption and shortchanging of the country and the metal industry at large.

A foundry player during the meeting indicated that unscrupulous  officials from Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Flora and Fauna have been fraudulently issuing scrap metal export licences when in actual fact the licences should be issued by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development through the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).

It was also brought to light that the CID just affirms or stipulates the source of scrap but they were not aware that their acknowledgements were being used as permits to export scrap out of Zimbabwe.

Efforts to reach the ZRP were fruitless by the time of publishing.

Foundry players are therefore calling for the Auditor General’s office to unearth the mystery behind scrap metal exports as to protect the foundry industry from the illegal export of scrap.

This has come at a time when the metal foundry sector and the exporters are scavenging for scrap.

The manufacture of steel depends on the availability of raw materials which primarily constitute scrap metals.

The foundry industry requires over one million tonnes of scrap metal just to produce thousand or fewer cast products with the metal cast industry’s current production sitting at 40 per cent.

Calls for Zimbabwe to ban scrap metal exports have grown amid revelations about 30 foundry and steel recycling firms have closed shop in the last two years due to an acute shortage of feedstock and high scrap metal prices.

The enterprises, mostly domiciled in Harare, Bulawayo and Midlands provinces, are helping to narrow the production gap left following the collapse of the local steel industry more than a decade ago. However, a sustained export of the scrap metals even by big firms has weighed down the operations of the foundry sector heavily.

CEMENT imports into the country have more than doubled to 16 percent this year and the country’s leading cement producer, Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) Zimbabwe says this is weighing its efforts to reach optimum capacity utilisation levels.

The company has an installed capacity of 1,4 million tonnes annually against a national demand of 1,3 million tonnes.

In an interview, PPC Zimbabwe managing director Mr Kelibone Masiyane said the level of cement imports into the country are worrisome as this restricts what they can produce for the market.

“If the market is saturated because we are bringing in imports, then it curtails our capacity utilisation.

“The cement that we should be making and selling locally and increasing our capacity utilisation, we are being affected by imports.

“We have seen some imports actually increasing and lately this year, they have gone to crazy levels where in the past there would be around seven to eight percent, but have more than doubled,” he said.

Mr Masiyane said together with other industry players they continue to lobby the Government to cease cement imports.

Lafarge, Sino, Livetouch and Pacstar are some of the cement producers in the country.

The imports, which are coming from neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Zambia, he said, largely involve some enterprising individuals and speculators while some of the cement is smuggled into Zimbabwe.
In 2017, PPC, which owns a clinker production plant in Colleen Bawn as well as a cement factory in Bulawayo, commissioned its second cement plant in Harare to augment output levels.

The two plants each have an installed capacity of 700 000 tonnes annually.

“As a company alone, before we start looking at competition from other players locally, we have got more than enough installed capacity to supply the entire country.

“There is no real reason for somebody to import cement from Zambia or South Africa,” said
Masiyane.

“We have also been lobbying against imports because we are investing locally and when you invest, as an investor you expect a return from that investment.

“Like now we built that plant in Harare and commissioned it in early 2017, if you look at it from a capacity utilisation point of view, it’s still running at not optimal levels because weare getting imports coming in.”

He said cement on the local market is not competitive when compared to the region, because of the high cost of production and import duties being levied when importing critical spares for the factories.

“In some sense, we always say cement is a logistics business and logistics accounts for almost 40 percent of our costs.

“Now you can imagine, especially for PPC, in terms of geographical dispersion where we have Collen Bawn in Gwanda, we have the Bulawayo plant then we have in Harare another plant.

“When you compare to neighbouring countries, sometimes just moving a tonne, we are probably three or so times more than neighbouring countries.

The cost of electricity coupled with import duties and some of our spares are quite high compared to these other countries,” he said.

In Zambia, a 50kg bag of cement ranges between US$6 and US$6,45 while in South Africa it averages between R85 and R99.

A survey carried out by Business Weekly early this week established that a 50 kg bag of cement in Harare and Chitungwiza averages between US$9 and US$10,50.

Subdued local cement supplies

A hardware shop at Makoni Shopping Centre in Chitungwiza which sells imported and local cement brands was selling Lafarge-produced brands at US$10,20 while imported brand manufactured by Dangote was selling at US$10.

“Right now we don’t have cement from PPC; two weeks ago we placed an order at PPC but they couldn’t deliver and only yesterday I asked them to reimburse me my money and no reasons have been given as to why they can’t supply.

“We are importing the Dangote-produced cement from Zambia through the formal channel,” said a shop attendant who preferred not to be named.

It also emerged that some hardwares in Harare such as Mohamed Mussa and Bhola did not have cement from PPC.

The shop attendants who spoke on condition of anonymity said they have gone for at least two weeks without cement from PPC.

“We have run out of cement from PPC and it’s been more than two weeks without supply. We don’t even know when supplies from PPC will resume, we don’t know the reasons behind the short supply,” said one of the shop attendants at Mahomed Mussa hardware situated at Orr Street.

Contacted for comment, Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza said, “Lafarge is down but has started producing.

“We have allowed imports to fill in the gap. PPC is aware of this development and cannot meet the gap created by inability to supply by Lafarge.

“We discussed that issue when we visited them and they said had the breakdown been foreseen, they could have upped their production.”

“We are limiting imports. Apparently, it’s the northern areas that have been importing more than the southern part of the country,” she said.

Business Weekly

THE Zimbabwe Safety Health and Environmental Council (Zimshec) is set to roll out extensive small-scale miners’ trainings on safety, health and environmental issues nationwide.

Launched last year, Zimshec is an organisation founded by small-scale and artisanal miners to promote occupational health and safety, environmentally friendly and sustainable mining practices as well as reduce the number of people trapped in mines due to poor mining practices.

Safety in mining is a key constituent in propelling the nation to the envisaged US$12 billion mining economy by 2023, as a result, the trainings are meant to assist the small-scale mining sector that has over the years been rocked by accidents which have led to massive loss of life.

Zimshec Deputy Executive Director Mr Philemon Mokuele told Sunday Business that the trainings are meant to raise awareness among artisanal and small miners on different aspects including occupational health and safety risks including how these can be addressed.

“Awareness campaigns on health and safety is one of the things Zimshec is doing. We are going to start the trainings any time soon but we cannot disclose the dates as yet as we are still finalizing some logistics with one of the universities, we signed a MoU with.”

Mr Mokuele who is also the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) Matabeleland South provincial chairman said their trainings are meant to complement Government’s efforts, which has been conducting miners’ safety outreach programmes. These have been credited for the decline in mine related accidents during the rainy season.

The Sunday News

ZIMBABWE has missed its mineral production targets for the first two months of the year by about 25%, but authorities remain optimistic that it will meet a sectorial US$12 billion revenue contribution by 2023.

However, developments indicate achieving a US$12 billion mining economy by 2023 with current estimates of about US$5  billion from gold and another US$5 billion from the rest of the minerals is almost impossible.

Excluding gold, the country recorded sales of US$539 million cumulatively for January and February 2022, against a target of US$675 million, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) general manager Tongai Muzenda told businessdigest in an interview.

“It’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a slow start to the year,” Muzenda said.

Although far below projections by about U$136 million, the figures are 2% above prior year and initiatives being implemented could have brought the sector back on target by the end of March, according to Muzenda.

“I think by the end of the quarter, which is the end of March, we should be able to catch-up and be on target. I hope. If that doesn’t happen, then we are confident we will be able to catch up in the second quarter,” he said.

Collection and reconciliation of statistics for the month of March is ongoing.

Muzenda said the sector was benefiting from firming up of prices on the global market for most minerals.

“In terms of prices, they have gone up for almost all minerals, be it PGMs which is the biggest contributor. Be it chrome ore or ferrochrome, the prices have gone up a little bit and also coke and coal,” he said.

Muzenda said the sector was on course to hit the US$12 billion target for 2023.

Mining, agriculture, infrastructure and manufacturing are at the centre of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ambitious economic turnaround strategy.

“We are doing fine towards the US$12  billion mark. This year, we anticipate doing up to US$5 billion by the end of year. That is our target in terms of our strategic planning and this is excluding gold,” he said.

Including gold, based on production targets of US$5 billion worth of the yellow metal in 2023, the sector is this year expected to hit around US$10 billion.

However, a close source in the ministry of Mines and Mining Development said US$8 billion was a realistic target for the sector this year.

The extractive sector has over the years suffered from a myriad of challenges including a perennial image crisis that has negatively impacted foreign investment.

Mining also suffered from an energy crisis that has resulted in industry going for more than 12 hours without power.

As a result, businesses have resorted to diesel powered generators, which is a nightmare for the energy intensive mining industry after recent fuel price increases.

Solar investments are proving costly and not within the reach of all players.

Zimbabwe’s mining sector has also raised concern about high labour costs, high utility costs, multiple layers of taxes and foreign currency retention rules introduced by the central bank as the economy remains stuck in a foreign currency crisis.

Zimbabwe’s US$12 billion target from the mining sector is also affected by smuggling, especiallyof gold and diamonds.

The country’s major gold buyer, Fidelity Printers and Refiners has for years failed to pay for deliveries timeously, leaving the market open to cartels of illegal buyers who pay cash and often smuggle the precious mineral.

The Independent 

Zimbabwe’s mining industry is engaging the government over the volatile operating environment which has pushed most of the resources firms to the brink.

The multibillion dollar industry, projected to grow by 8% this year, is the country’s largest foreign currency earner, accounting for more than 70% of forex earnings.

“We are engaging the government on various issues affecting us which range from volatile exchange rate which pushes up cost of doing business, forex retention levels and taxation among a plethora of challenges,” the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe CEO, Isaac Kwesu told Business Times this week.

“Government should work closely with the mining industry to address structural bottlenecks weighing down the performance of the mining  sector and unlock the full potential of the industry. This will maximise its contribution to the socio-economic development of the country.”

Kwesu said a low retention threshold of 60% was adversely impacting the sector.

“The emerging demands have seen mining companies utilising between 15% and 30% of their export proceeds to meet local taxes, levies and electricity payments,” he said.

“The remaining foreign currency is insufficient to fund their operations. Mining houses are losing more than 50% of the value of the surrendered portion of export proceeds that is liquidated at the official auction market rate. This situation is resulting in loss to mining companies translating to at least 20% of gross revenue.”

Kwesu said the electricity supply remained erratic and this has  disrupted production despite miners paying bills in foreign currency.

He said the shortages and delays in accessing foreign currency to import critical inputs and supplies is affecting production, leading to the inability to restock critical raw materials and equipment.  This impacted on production.

The mining sector, he said, was facing huge challenges on the rising cost of doing business due to the volatile exchange rate.

“Given that  we are only paying 50% of our statutory obligation in local currency on the liquidated 40% of the total revenue, this obviously impacts severely on costs and the viability of mining operations,” Kwesu said.

In its latest report, the Chamber of Mines said the sector requires about  US$10bn in new capital in the next five years to ramp up production.

Despite  these severe headwinds  the mining sector is confronted with, some mining houses are undertaking projects worth over US$2,1bn to boost production.

These include Zimplats, Unki, Mimosa and Caledonia.

“Various projects in the mining sector are expected to boost the industry’s output in the outlook following investments in various minerals,”  the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe  said in its latest report.

Zimplats approved a  capital investment strategy with a budget of US$1.8bn  to be implemented over 10 years beginning in 2021.

About US$1.2bn  has already  been approved for implementation.

“These projects include maintaining current production levels through mine replacements and upgrades worth US$516m, expanding production levels through growth projects, including the development of a new Mupani Mine, the replacement production source for Rukodzi and Ngwarati mines which will deplete in 2022 and 2025 respectively and Bimha Mine redevelopment.”

Unki Mine  has since completed the concentrator expansion project which has resulted in a steady production ramp-up.

The project will result in increased concentrator capacity to 210,000 tonnes per month from 179,000 tonnes per month currently being processed.

Unki is also planning to expand its current 8.5 MW smelter which has a capacity of smelting 62-kilo tonne per annum and will be upgraded to 12.5 MW during 2022 and 2023.

Mimosa Mining is also  carrying out an expansion project at North Hill to increase the life of mine as well as contribute towards the attainment of critical mass for local beneficiation.

The company is also carrying out various projects to optimise its operations including a concentrate handling facility and reported a US$40m expenditure.

Great Dyke Investments (GDI) completed the first boxcut and excavation work. Once completed, GDI is expected to produce 3.45m tonnes of PGM ore per year at full throttle.

Karo has completed an exploration and resource delineation and the project is now at the implementation stage. The project is expected to mine approximately 14.4 Mtpa of the run of mine ore.Bravura carried out exploration and feasibility studies in 2021 and is planning to go into mine construction in 2022 and production to start in 2023.

Todal is currently undertaking resource estimation, aeromagnetic survey and drilling. Metallurgical testworks on communication, variability and flotation are expected to be finished by 2022 and a pilot plant to be built by 2023.

Caledonia Mine invested approximately US$67m in its central shaft at Blanket Mine which was commissioned in March 2021 and production target of 80,000 ounces of gold is expected from 2022 and beyond with costs expected to fall on the back of economies of scale.

Freda Rebecca is ramping up production of both open pit and underground resources with an expected increase in production of up to 8,000 ounces in 2022.

How Mine injected US$5m on a shaft sinking project which opened up new mining areas.

Production ramp-up and exploration activities around the mine with an anticipated production increase of around 13% in 2022.

RioZim is finalising its US$17m BIOX Plant Project before the end of 2021 and output from the plant will materialise in 2022.

Gold production is anticipated at 140 kilogrammes per month during the first phase of the project and 200 kilograms per month after completion of Phase 2. Pan African Mining is expanding the dump retractor.

Eureka Gold Mine is resuming operations. Its plant is expected to boost gold production with a monthly average production of 115 kg per month.

Golden Reef Mining is ramping up production at all their mines to result in an increase in monthly gold output of 60 kg/ month, from about 20 kg/ month.

Turk Mine  is upgrading its main shaft to increase annual gold production by 140 kg and planning to implement a heap leach project to tap into some surface resources and add to gold output in 2022.

Golden Quarry Mine reopening and production ramp-up is underway with an expected output of 12kg per month by 2022 and dewatering of the mine is underway.

Business Times

FOUNDRY industry operators are crying foul over the increase in coke prices, which they say is a threat to the viability of their operations.

Globally, the price of coke has gone up and the local producers have followed suit.

The situation is being worsened by the continuing Russian-Ukraine war, which has seen energy prices jump in the last two months, industry experts say.

Zimbabwe Institute of Foundries (ZIF) president, Mr Itai Zaba, said coke prices have risen by about 30 percent to US$365 per tonne effective 2 April 2022 and this affects the local foundry industry operations.

Given that coke is a major input, the jump in prices has an effect of pushing production costs up.

Mr Zaba said they were already grappling with tight competition from imported products from neighbouring countries and the coke prices will worsen their situation.

“The coke price increase will slow down foundry growth and affect Government’s efforts to promote import substitution,” he said.

Mr Zaba said many foundries are operating at around 25 percent capacity utilisation down
from about 40 percent last year.

ZIF has said it is committed to working closely with the Government to reduce production costs and ensure competitive pricing, which is critical in driving exports and substituting imports.

The foundry industry had set a target to increase capacity utilisation from 40 to 80 percent by the end of this year.

Contacted for comment, Engineer Victor Rakabopa, who is into coal and coke mining, said coke price increase was linked to the Russia-Ukraine war.

He also said the increase in demand for coal products from this region has also significantly contributed to price increase.

Mr Zaba, however, said the coke price increase could not be attributed to the Russia-Ukraine war because coke is a local product .

“We understand that the fuel prices have gone up by about 20 percent but this cannot justify the 30 percent coke price hike,” he said.

The Chronicle