New investor to set up Gold mine in Masvingo
Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando says an investor who has shown interest to establish a gold mine in Ngundu, Masvingo province is expected to move on-site by September.
Benard Rinomhota
Recently, the government announced that it was in talks with an unnamed investor to establish a gold mine in Ngundu.
“We are looking at the guys (investor) moving on-site in September to undertake that project. In terms of the Ngundu prospect, the area has been identified and a very serious investor has been identified who is expected to start a resource definition program to establish the quantum and size of the resource at the site,” said Minister Chitando in a recent interview with Mining Zimbabwe.
Last October, the government launched a strategic road map to achieve a US$12 billion mining industry by 2023.
To attain the set target, the Government believes in the need to re-open mothballed mines and investing in new mines.
Zimbabwe is endowed with abound untapped mineral deposits ranging from gold, platinum, diamond, coal, chrome, lithium, and coal-bed methane gas, among others.
Through the “use-it or lose-it” policy, the government has vowed that all mining concessions lying idle for speculative purposes would be repossessed and allocated to serious investors. Repossession of such mining titles across the board is expected to begin this month and under the first phase of the exercise, more than 200 claims will be ceased.
“I really want to urge all those who own mining concessions that we are now implementing the use-it or lose-it policy.
“If you are not using the mining concession, we are getting it back.
“We have some mining concession dating back to 1910, 1972, it’s now a thing of the past. Any mining concession that is not being utilised in terms of the provisions of the Mines and Minerals Act it will be repossessed by government, said Minister Chitando.
The mining sector remains Zimbabwe’s key foreign currency earner contributing significantly to the fiscus and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Meanwhile, six new investors have been granted coal-bed methane (CBM) special grants by the government in Matabeleland North province to tap into cleaner fuel for electricity generation.
The companies include Tumagole of South Africa, Sakunda Holdings, and Shangani Energy Exploration (SEE), which is owned by Chinese steel giant, Sinosteel.
Already, some of the investors undertaking CBM exploration activities in Lupane and Gwayi areas of Matabeleland North include Discovery Investments and Liberation Mining.
It is believed that the country is overwhelmed by huge deposits of untapped coal-bed methane gas in Hwange, Lupane, and Gwayi but their commercial viability has not yet been supported by geological information.
This article first appeared in the August 2020 issue of the Mining Zimbabwe Magazine