Women miners are demanding a fair chrome price from Afrochine agents Ling and Blackie saying the value at which the firms are purchasing their chrome is very low.
Shantel Chisango
Demonstrating at Afrochine Damex Norton Plant last Saturday over unfair chrome prices, chrome miners said Afrochine agents disregard the grade or quality of chrome buying from as little as $22 per tonne.
“All the women miners are demanding is a fair price for chrome. The Afrochine agent Ling and Blackie do not consider the quality/grade of chrome, they buy at a controversial face value basis as little as $22/ton,” said Chiedza Chipangura, a chrome miner and former ZMF Mashwest boss.
Chrome miners further complained that the absence of a chrome pricing model is making it difficult for them to trade their chrome.
“Women miners are demonstrating at Afrochine Damex Norton plant over unfair chrome buying prices. The government has stopped the export of raw chrome however there is no chrome pricing model,” Chipangura said.
In addition, the chrome miners demanded that Afrochine agents Ling and Blackie must be removed from the chrome business so Afrochine’s name does not get tarnished because of such actions.
Commenting on the demonstrations that took place, Afrochine said they are communicating with suppliers to purchase chrome at much higher prices.
“We want to place it on record that we are in constant touch with suppliers with a view to buying the resource at the most competitive prices. Recently, we received upwards the price of chrome ore.”
Afrochine further urged stakeholders to approach them with matters disturbing them so that emerging issues can be addressed amicably and timely.
Local chrome miners depend on Chinese investors for machinery and a market for ore. In theory, the partnerships are mutually beneficial. But in practice, Zimbabwean miners say, the relationships are exploitative.
Research showed that foreigners say paying more for chrome will run them out of business hence the low prices for chrome.
In recent years, the government-owned Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe has paid more than $100 per ton to local miners.
ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed nickel producer Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC) saw its sales volumes return to four digit figures during the quarter ended June 30, 2021 as offshore shipments resumed after last year’s bold step to suspend trade and pursue favourable deals.
Volumes rocketed to 1 153 tonnes during the review period after hitting a 27 tonne low during the comparable period in 2020, company secretary Conrad Fungai Mukanganga said, as he projected steeper surges to 1 687 by the end of the 2022 second quarter.
He said BNC concluded a fresh deal with Zopco SA, a Switzerland domiciled offtake partner, in place of its longrunning agreement with global commodities giant Glencore, which also hails from Zurich.
“Sales tonnage for the quarter ended 30 June 2021 was significantly higher than the tonnage sold in the quarter ended 30 June 2020,” Mukanganga said.
“In the latter period, the insignificant sales tonnage was attributable to the temporary suspension of sales, which was necessitated by the need to conclude a more favourable new off-take agreement with Zopco SA, a Switzerland based trading house, in place of the agreement with Glencore.”
Trading was boosted by rocketing international nickel prices, which averaged US$17 343 per tonne during the review period, compared to US$12 197 during the comparable period last year.
Mukanganga projected a big rise in milled ore output during the second quarter of 2022 after completing a crucial shaft re-deepening programme at Trojan Mine.
The miner saw output surge to 95 518 tonnes during the quarter ended June 30, 2021 following a production ramp up that kick off after bringing back the re-drilled shaft online from April.
Mukanganga said with the fresh capacity output would be robust in the coming quarter, rising to 164 871 tonnes of milled ore by the second quarter of next year.
“During the period March to April 2021, a planned production stoppage came into effect to facilitate the completion of the Shaft Re-deep Tie-in Project, as well as the refurbishment of major components of the concentrator plant.
Both were successfully completed,” Mukanganga said in the trading update.
“Production resumed at the end of April 2021, following the commissioning of these projects.
“Despite there being no production for most of April 2021, tonnes milled in the quarter under review, were marginally higher than for the comparative period in FY (financial year) 2020.
“This was due to the loss of production during the latter period, occasioned by the operational restrictions imposed by the government in response to the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with the unavailability of massives in the production mix, which were in turn attributable to lagging development.
“Head grade, at 1,45%, was marginally lower than in the prior year.
“The capital expenditure which has been directed towards the replacement of ageing and obsolete mobile underground mining equipment is expected to lead to the attainment of the Company’s forecasts for the financial year ending 31 March 2022.”
Mines, like many other industries, were last year crippled by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced government to roll out hard lockdowns between April and October, as the battle to combat a deadly spread kicked off.
While the mining industry was classified among essential services, serious disruptions in global supply chains grounded many as export markets briefly collapsed, which raw material and equipment import routes closed as people headed back to the comfort of their homes.
The pandemic has continued with deadly precision through a string of emerging variants, but governments including in Zimbabwe, are slowly learning to live with it, and have been taking bold steps to reopen their economies.
Mining giant, BHP, is set to leave the FTSE 100 index after unveiling plans to scrap the dual listing of its shares in London and Sydney.
The company, part of the UK’s blue chip index since 2001, will move its main listing to Australia as part of a huge shake up announcement on Tuesday.
BHP regularly tops the list of the FTSE 100’s biggest companies, depending on fluctuations in market values.
The move will see some investor funds that track the FTSE sell BHP shares.
“Now is the right time to unify BHP’s corporate structure,” said its chairman Ken MacKenzie. “BHP will be simpler and more efficient, with greater flexibility to shape our portfolio for the future.
“Our plans announced today (Tuesday) will better enable BHP to pursue opportunities in new and existing markets and create value and returns over generations.”
The move comes as BHP announced it was combining its oil and gas assets with Australia’s Woodside, creating one of the world’s 10 biggest producers of liquified natural gas.
BHP’s chief executive, Mike Henry, is trying to shift the company’s focus towards metals such as copper and nickel, and away from fossil fuels. BHP has also put its last thermal coal mine up for sale.
Abandoning the dual listing unwinds a structure that has been in place in 2001, when Australia’s BHP merged with the UK’s Billiton. The company was known as BHP Billiton until 2017.
Unilever has also abandoned its dual structure more than three years ago when it chose London above Amsterdam.
BHP also told shareholders that its pre-tax profit had risen to £17.8 billion in the last financial year, up from £9.8 billion. – BBC News.
PREMIER African Minerals has made a placement to raise a total of £1 million for the ongoing Definitive Feasibility Studies at Zulu Lithium project in Matabeleland South.
In April, Premier announced that it had initiated a DFS and a funding strategy to be applied in future development of its Zulu lithium and tantalum project in Matabeleland South.
In a statement, the mining group said the placing has been arranged within its existing share authorities.
“The board of Premier African Minerals Limited is pleased to announce a placing today to raise £1 million before expenses at an issue price of 0,2 pence per new ordinary share for the ongoing DFS at the company’s Zulu Lithium project in Zimbabwe,” it said.
In an endeavour to fight the surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe, the largest ferrochrome producer, Afrochine Smelting Private donated fuel to Mberegwa Hospital to assist in its operations.
Anerudo Mapuranga
The company speaking on its official Twitter handle said Mberengwa hospital was delighted to receive the fuel donation from the company.
“Yesterday, Mberengwa Hospital in the Midlands Province, warmly acknowledged our donation of fuel to assist the institution in its operations, esp for #Covid19 outreach and contact tracing. We have been at hand to assist them for a period now,” Afrochine said.
The company last month in its effort to fight the pandemic organized Covid-19 vaccinations for its staff, with more than 2000 already having had their first jabs.
The company procured the vaccines from the national Covid-19 stocks and brought in Chegutu district health department, using Selous Clinic staff, to administer the jabs.
Families of four trapped bodies at Task Mine in Chegutu have lost faith in the government recovering their loved one’s remains, and have accepted that their loved ones’ corpses may never be unearthed.
Rudairo Mapuranga
Mr Gwatidzo, one of the parents who lost a 17-year-old school-going son, said the situation is difficult because the shaft has been filled with water from the broken water pumps, it is impossible to exhume the bodies.
The government had since last year offered assistance with the exhumation of the bodies underground, but there has not been any help offered to family members since the onset of the disaster.
“The government was supposed to fully intervene in the case so that there was full support, but no support has been offered to the families whose remaining bodies are still trapped underground.
“The water pumps are not working, now with the water which is down there, l don’t even know if it’s still possible to retrieve the bodies,” Gwatidzo said.
Commenting on the issue, Mines Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Chairperson Honourable Edmond Mkaratigwa said the committee’s position pertaining to the matter has not changed and it is unacceptable to defy cultural values, people need to be buried decently, but due to Covid-19 restrictions, he says it has been difficult to speed up the process of exhuming the bodies.
“Covid-19 has had an effect on the speed of processes but we need to quickly adapt, since the committee’s position has not changed, people need to be decently buried,” said Mkaratigwa.
Gwatidzo expressed his sorrow towards the situation on the ground at Task Mine because the families there have been struggling to make ends meet while waiting on the government to come and help with the exhumation of the bodies.
“It’s so sad, we are still checking with each other, and supporting each other with food and paying fees for a few children of which the government is supposed to lend a hand so it does not get difficult to get by,” said Gwatidzo.
He further stated that the government must at least retrieve the bones of the remaining dead bodies underground so that families can get closure.
On the 8th of September 2020, five miners got trapped underground after the shaft they were working on collapsed and only one body was retrieved. Since then, no help has been offered to the families who lost their loved ones in the mine collapse with the government remaining mum on the tragic accident. Mine owners have since resumed work at the site and no effort is being put to retrieve the dead bodies from the shaft.
When Hakainde Hichilema first ran for President in Zambia, his background as a wealthy businessman was used against him.
“Rich people don’t understand the struggles of ordinary people,” an opponent said in the 2011 election, in which Hichilema came a distant third with 18.5% of the vote.
Since then, he worked to strip down that image of an elitist, swapping business suits for jeans and casual jackets. He carefully crafted a social media strategy that cast him as an everyday-man, and not one of Zambia’s richest men.
“I am just a cattle boy,” he told an interviewer ahead of the 2021 elections.
But, yet, it is his business background that voters now look to, as he faces the challenge of solving the economic crises he inherits from his successor, Edgar Lungu.
Here is a profile on Hichilema, and some of the key economic questions that he faces as he enters office.
Who is Hichilema?
He was born in 1962, in Monze, a district in the South of Zambia. He studied business at the University of Zambia and took an MBA at Britain’s University of Birmingham. He became leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND) in 2006, after the death of one of his mentors, the long-time opposition leader Anderson Mazoka.
Since then, he contested in elections five times without success. He was third with 25% the first time out in 2006, third again in 2008 with 19.7%, and third in 2011 with 18.5%. In 2015, now leading a coalition, he lost narrowly to Edgar Lungu by just under 30,000 votes. He once again lost narrowly to Lungu in 2016.
He has now won at the sixth time of trying.
What about his business interests?
Hichilema was CEO of accountancy firm Coopers and Lybrand at 32, from 1994 to 1998, and of the company’s successor firm Grant Thornton, up to 2006.
He has chaired and held substantial shareholdings in large firms such as Barclays Zambia, and Sun International, which holds the country’s biggest tourism resorts.
Other investments and corporate roles include Greenbelt Fertilisers, Seed Co Zambia, and Zambezi Nickel.
He is one of the largest cattle ranchers and beef suppliers in Zambia.
In 2020, he joked about this: “I was asked, ‘HH, do you have beef with Mr. Lungu?’ I replied, ‘Of course. I always have beef’”.
Hichilema has built strong networks with influential business groups.
He has publicly received the support of the Brenthurst Foundation, which is chaired by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. The foundation is run by the Oppenheimer family, which has vast mining interests such as a stake in Anglo American, and will likely be key in the economy under Hichilema.
Copper: The job at hand
Copper accounts for over 70% of Zambian exports. This means that copper prices directly affect the country’s currency and inflation.
When world copper prices fell during Lungu’s term, 15,000 mineworkers lost their jobs. This sparked violent protests, in which workers blamed Lungu for failing to protect them. This was a factor in Lungu’s poor results in the Copperbelt.
Hichilema ran his campaign on promises of slowing down inflation, which has hit record highs above 25%. Since January last year, the kwacha has fallen by 40%.
The crisis in the mines has also been worsened by low tax payments from big mining companies.
Even when copper prices peaked in the early 2010s, Zambia received little from the mines. Lungu tried to fix this by raising mining royalties, but this worked against him as large mining investors protested by holding off on new investment and threatening to shut down operations.
Zambians hoping to get more from their mines (Pic: Trendsnafrica)
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This February, under pressure from miners, Lungu approved a lower mining royalty scheme, halving royalty rates for open-pit mines. But relations between Lungu and miners were already damaged, beyond repair.
Hichilema pledged to mend ties with the big mining investors, winning himself more investor support.
Zambia’s state mining investment arm ZCCM-IH agreed in January to take on US$1.5 billion in debt in exchange for full control of Mopani Copper Mines. This was because Glencore, the company that owned the mine, had threatened to shut it down. Lungu said this step was good for workers, but Hichilema said it added more debt.
At one time, Zambian authorities had even detained Mopani’s CEO, Nathan Bullock, as he attempted to leave the country.
In 2019, Lungu placed Vedanta Resources’ Konkola Copper Mines in provisional liquidation, accusing Vedanta of underpaying taxes and lying about the scale of its investment. Solving this standoff will be one of the Hichilema’s key priorities.
While Lungu ran for re-election on vast infrastructure projects, the Hichilema campaign countered by saying the projects were paid for by debt, such as Chinese loans and Eurobonds.
Foreign debt has risen from under US$2 billion to over US$12 billion, up from 35% of GDP to 110%.
Last year, Zambia defaulted on US$3 billion of foreign bonds. Hichilema has pledged to immediately start talks for a quick aid package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as he negotiates debt restructuring with other lenders.
The IMF expects Zambia to be among the countries to see slow economic recovery this year, with growth of 0.6% after a 3.5% contraction last year.
How do investors see Hichilema?
Hichilema was the pro-business candidate in the election.
Investors were rooting for Hichilema. Ahead of the poll, Kevin Daly of Aberdeen Standard Investments, part of the Zambia External Bondholder Committee, a grouping for investors holding Zambia’s Eurobonds, said a win for Hichilema would see a rally in Zambian assets.
Hichilema won more support from big business when he promised to reverse mining royalties that had been imposed by Lungu. These would have hit international groups such as Glencore, First Quantum, Barrick Gold and Vedanta.
Hichilema told Radio Christian Voice in January 2019 that miners were backing his cndidacy: “The mining companies are saying ‘HH [Hakainde Hichilema] we are waiting for you to come [into power]. We will pay the tax which you will introduce because we know it is a fair tax’.”
It is also a good time for Hichilema to be going into office.
Copper prices have since recovered, which is good news for the kwacha, and Hichilema.
Relations between Lungu and the IMF were so bad that, in 2018, he pushed for the expulsion of the IMF’s resident representative, Alfredo Baldini. But IMF was already signalling a deal for aid last year.
Ahead of the expected IMF support, Zambian government bonds had already gained more than 30% since November. International banks such as Bank of Nevis have recently announced investments in local banks. Ratings agency Fitch also upgraded Zambia’s long-term local currency debt in April, attracting foreign money back into local bonds.
Zambia will also benefit from IMF SDR allocations, which will double Zambia’s foreign reserves, shore up the currency, and boost Hichilema’s efforts to turn around the economy.
“I’m a businessman; I know how to create jobs,” Hichilema told one rally.
Caledonia Mining’s investment in a new shaft at Blanket Mine is starting to show results; ore tonnage reached new records in the second quarter, helping the company double earnings for the period.
The company commissioned a central shaft earlier this year, and in the three months to June, Blanket mined and milled 165,000 tonnes of ore, the biggest quarterly tonnage.
“This is a new production record for any quarter and reflects the contribution of the Central Shaft which was commissioned at the end of March 2021 and the build-up towards the target of 80,000 ounces per annum from 2022 onwards,” Caledonia says in a trading update released Thursday.
Gold output was 16,710 ounces in the quarter, 24% higher than the 13,499 ounces produced in Q2 2020. This is also a new production record for a second-quarter at the mine. Production was 29,907 ounces in the First Half, 8% more than the 27,732 ounces in the first half of 2020.
Golden profits
EBITDA – excluding asset impairments, net foreign exchange gains and losses, and export incentives – of US$14 million, sharply rose by 103% from US$6.9 million in Q2 2020.
Gross revenues of US$30 million were 31% above the US$22.9 million in the second quarter of 2020. Gross profit for the quarter was US$13.9 million, up 51% on the US$9.2 million in the same quarter last year.
Caledonia’s revenue for the six months was US$55.7 million from US$46.5 million, as a result of the increased output and a firmer gold price over the period. Gross profit was US$24.3 million from US$19.7 million last year.
The company is targeting 61,000 – 67,000 ounces for 2021, before ramping up to over 80,000 ounces per year from 2022, as a result of the new shaft. Last year, Blanket produced a record 57,899 ounces. There are signs that the company will meet its targets, with production in July, at 5,995 ounces, being above average monthly production.
ZIMBABWE represents an exciting new frontier, with recent exploration activities leading to strong indications of significant oil and gas prospects.
The country has no proven hydrocarbon reserves and derives its energy primarily from hydropower and coal, along with petroleum imports from neighboring countries.
However, with the promise of potential prospects in the Muzarabani Basin – which borders Zimbabwe and Mozambique – the country is sitting on the verge of a hydrocarbon boom, set to be unlocked through foreign capital, technology, and expertise.
As Zimbabwe prioritises the expansion of its energy sector and invites global stakeholders to explore its uncharted territory, African Energy Week (AEW) 2021 in Cape Town will serve as the official platform whereby Zimbabwe will showcase its potential to prospective investors.
In a bid to establish a domestic hydrocarbon industry and achieve energy independence, Zimbabwe has recently focused its efforts on exploration, with Australian-based Invictus Energy Limited leading the way.
In 2018, Invictus signed a petroleum exploration development and production agreement with the Government of Zimbabwe to explore commercial deposits in the Muzarabani prospect.
The company has since revealed significant hydrocarbon potential located in the prospect, leading to a planned 2D seismic survey campaign and the drilling of the first oil/gas test well in October/November 2021.
If successful, confirmed hydrocarbon deposits could not only lead to enhanced energy independence by reducing petroleum imports but also drive gas-to-power projects that could power the country’s mining sector and industrialization.
In other words, the Muzarabani Basin has the potential to catapult Zimbabwe into both an energy and industrial hub.
Additionally, the potentially hydrocarbon-rich Muzarabani Basin could justify other commercially viable deposits in other basins across the country.
In total, Zimbabwe has six sedimentary basins – Kariba Basin, Tuli Basin, Mozambique Basin, Okavango Basin, Zambezi Basin, and Nama Kalahari Basin – which hold the right geological address for hydrocarbons, thereby warranting further exploration.
This has created attractive opportunities for global explorers and upstream stakeholders looking to cash in on one of Africa’s final frontiers.
As Zimbabwe seeks to develop its burgeoning oil and gas sector, AEW 2021 recognizes the significant potential that Zimbabwe holds, and will present the country and its investment opportunities to both regional and global stakeholders at Africa’s premier energy event.
By uniting financiers and oil and gas explorers with Zimbabwean partners, AEW 2021 will facilitate the critical investment deals necessary for the country to realize its oil and gas objectives.
In addition to oil and gas opportunities, Zimbabwe may be the solution to and a key driver of Africa’s energy transition, boasting significant mineral deposits that serve as key inputs into clean energy technologies.
The country’s mining industry, which focuses on gold, asbestos, chromite, coal, platinum, and diamonds, is made up of a diverse range of small- to medium-sized operations and contributes eight percent towards the country’s GDP.
However, it is the country’s lithium potential that could drive international investors into the country and propel Africa’s energy transition.
According to the International Trade Administration, Zimbabwe has the largest lithium deposits in Africa and one of the top ten reserves globally, with the country’s largest mine – the Bikita mine – holding approximately 12.8 million tonnes of lithium ore with a lithium content of 1.4%, or 150,000 tons. With the recent rebound in the lithium market – in part attributed to increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries associated with green power for utilities and car production – Zimbabwe is on the precipice of a mining sector revolution.
By showcasing the country’s potential and positioning Zimbabwe at the forefront of Africa’s energy transition, AEW 2021 will unite investors with on the ground opportunities in one of Africa’s most sought-after markets.
Accordingly, AEW 2021 will drive a productive discussion on Zimbabwe and its oil, gas, and lithium resource potential, as well as facilitate the critical deals necessary for the country to realize its long-term development objectives.
Join investors, stakeholders, government officials, and policymakers at AEW 2021 and be awarded exclusive insights into Zimbabwe’s fast-growing hydrocarbon and mineral resource sectors.
ZVISHAVANE: In the mining town of Zvishavane, in central Zimbabwe, lies Maglas, an aging, broken-down community burdened with crumbling houses.
The town’s lack of water and ablution facilities leaves a pervasive stench of feces and urine. In the rainy season, potholed roads fill with water.
Nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles) to the northeast sits Mutare, a city in Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands, where Redwing mine is located. Along one road, children have just filled their buckets at a burst pipe. Their homes don’t have running water.
These scenes repeat themselves throughout Zimbabwe’s mining towns, as critics of the government say weak laws and policies, combined with a lack of transparency, have left these communities flailing.
The towns are rich in mineral resources. But their people are among the country’s poorest.
“To say they are not benefiting much [from mining] is an understatement,” says Farai Maguwu, director of the Centre for Natural Resource Governance, a Zimbabwe-based research and advocacy organization. “Reality is they are not benefiting anything.
In fact, mining is further impoverishing them by attacking their environment, which they depend on for livelihoods.”
Zimbabwe boasts more than 60 types of minerals, and about 40 are already being mined. At least 4,000 gold deposits dot the country, along with platinum, chrome, lithium, coal, diamonds and more.
Diamonds in Mutare’s Marange fields were worth an estimated $800 billion a decade ago. Zvishavane is blessed with gold, chrome and platinum deposits.
A 2015 Zimbabwe Open University study on mineral revenue argues that “governments and mining companies promise communities from which minerals are mined both social and economic benefits, but still there are no tangible benefits that go to these communities.”
Another study, in 2012 by the Institute of Environmental Studies, found that more than 90% of households involved with mineral extraction lived in poverty.
Midlands province, where Zvishavane is one of several mining towns, is one of the country’s most mineral-rich regions, but it’s saddled with the second-lowest access to basic water services, at 51%, according to a 2019 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee survey.
More than half of children in rural Midlands don’t have access to healthy food.
Onesimo Moyo, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, says it’s unfair to say that mining towns remain undeveloped.
“These towns were built on the back of mining,” Moyo says. “The schools, clinics and housing were a result of mining companies building infrastructure in the towns they were operating in. Zvishavane is a good example of such a town.”
Tinoda Mukutu, Zvishavane’s town secretary, agrees that mining companies have brought schools, clinics and other benefits to the region.
What’s missing, he says, is help from government-backed structures such as community share ownership trusts, which were introduced in 2007 as an offshoot of Zimbabwe’s indigenisation law.
Amended in 2018, the law was meant to ensure more economic power for black Zimbabweans.
Mining companies gave the trusts one-time payments for income-generation projects. And Moyo says the enterprises do share profits via the community trusts. But activists such as Joyce Nyamukunda are dubious.
Since the change in the indigenisation law, towns can’t force mining companies to pay into the trusts, says Nyamukunda, coordinator of the Zimbabwe chapter of Publish What You Pay, an initiative that promotes the rights of communities affected by mineral extraction.
“There is no law that specifically provides a system of allocating revenue collected from mining companies between central government, local authorities and communities,” she says.
In Gwanda, a town in Matabeleland South province in southwest Zimbabwe, the trusts improved access to water, electrified rural areas and provided capital for entrepreneurs.
In platinum- and gold-rich Shurugwi, located 88 kilometers (55 miles) from Zvishavane, old buildings and dilapidated roads mar one part of town. But on another section, the town’s biggest mining company –AngloAmerican Platinum – has erected gleaming new apartments for its employees.
“Mining companies [that came before] built infrastructure,” says Walter Nemasasi, general manager at AngloAmerican Platinum, which operates Unki Mine in Shurugwi.
“To the eye they may look dilapidated, to some, but it is not the responsibility of existing mining companies to take up that responsibility…We have our community social responsibility programs that we do and we continue to make our community better the best way we can.”
Residents say the local trust has improved sanitation and educational infrastructure and built more health facilities.
Maguwu, from the Centre for Natural Resource Governance, notes that of Zimbabwe’s 64 registered trusts, only a few can boast of such gains. “They are not serving any purpose because the government is not compelling companies to contribute,” he says.
His organisation and other civil society groups also blame a lack of government transparency for holding back mineral-rich communities.
The government fails to provide data about a range of mining-related areas, according to a 2018 Auditor General’s report. Those areas include tax incentives, licenses and mining revenue the government receives.
A decade ago, the government promised more transparency for the mining sector, but officials are still mulling whether to join the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which mandates that governments release mining revenue data.
“We cannot go blindly into it,” Moyo says. “It takes a lot of planning and consultation. Many think it’s a delay tactic, but it’s not. We just have to do due diligence.”
Maguwu, however, argues that joining the initiative isn’t the solution.
“Global governance mechanisms must be reproduced at the national and local level instead,” he says.
“The government, industry, civil society and local communities — including traditional leaders — must be involved in transparency issues. That is how investment decisions [should be] made.”
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