Masvingo province has a single registered gold buyer the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development heard.
Speaking at the Committee’s “Enquiry into the gold mining sector for the year 2022” Fidelity Gold Refiners General Manager Mr Peter Magaramombe said previous gold license buyers did not renew their licenses.
“Currently Masvingo only has a single registered gold buyer, the previous holders did not renew the permits. The province submits an average of 87kg of gold monthly,” Magamombe said.
The statement had parliamentarians expressing disappointment with its Chairman Hon Edmond Mkaratigwa enquiring if Renco was included in the seemingly paltry submissions. Magaramombe then clarified that Renco preferred fire assay which can only be done at its head office in Harare.
Firebrand Chiredzi North member of Parliament Hon Roy Bhila asked why FGR was not present at gold producing mine sites. Magaramombe responded to the question by saying it was not the official duty of FGR to camp at gold producing sites because there is no legislation that requires them to do so.
Magaramombe said there were a lot of legislative gaps limiting the entity to wholly mop all the gold produced in the country.
“In terms of the current legislation, there is no legislation which requires that Fidelity should put their representatives at the mines,” Magaramombe said.
Bhila also expressed annoyance that the Parliament’s recommendations were not being implemented which pointed to incompetence.
Miners in attendance recommended that FGR take seriously funding or sourcing loans for the ASM since they have proved to be consistent gold producers over the years. Magaramombe said FGR was looking forward to funding many operations by small scale miners to create a loyal relationship.
Magaramombe said the Gold Development Initiation Fund (GIDF), a loan facility that is primarily for the acquisition of gold mining plants and equipment in order to enhance gold production by miners will soon be available.
“We have got some investors that we had some discussion with last week and we went on to sign some loan agreements. If that succeeds we hope that in the next weeks or so we should be able to start distributing the fund to miners,” said Magaramombe.
He also encouraged miners to send their grievances to FGR.
“I want to encourage miners to put through their grievances to FGR so that all gold is sold through the formal channel. All grievances will be discussed and possible solutions sought,” he said.
Mkaratigwa also suggested that Fidelity was supposed to have a good working relationship with miners, as this will help FGR understand the grievances of miners and what needs to be done to make the miners happy.
The Parly Mines Committee has been working tirelessly pushing for progress for the mining sector to achieve its projection by 2023 of becoming a US$12 billion industry.
In attendance were stakeholders that included the ZMF, ZELA, EMA and many other organisations.