The Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) sector has continued to show its significance in the achievement of the US$4 Billion gold industry by 2023 as gold deliveries to the country’s sole gold buyer and exporter Fidelity Gold Refinery (FGR) increased by over 3 per cent in April from the previous month.
Rudairo Mapuranga
On average the ASM sector accounts for over 60 per cent of gold deliveries to FGR and has been a significant player in ensuring that the country’s target to achieve a US$12 billion mining sector is well on course to be achieved.
According to FGR figures received by this publication deliveries in April 2022 gold deliveries increased by 3.71761 per cent to 1621.9712 kgs from 1563.8339 kgs in March while Large scale producers’ deliveries decreased by 14.1343 per cent to 859.4400 kgs from 1000.9122 kgs produced in March 2022.
The statistics show that overall deliveries to Fidelity in April decreased by 3.24925 per cent to 2481.4112 Kgs from 2564.7461 kgs delivered in March 2022.
During the first quarter of 2022 gold deliveries jumped 92 per cent to 7.695 tonnes from 4.016 tonnes in the comparable period of 2021.
The March 2022 gold output spiked 39 per cent to 2.564 tonnes from 1.8 tonnes achieved during the comparable period following the 5 per cent mining incentives put in place by the central bank.
Of the 7.695 tonnes delivered during the first quarter of 2022, small scale miners delivered 4.949 tonnes against 2.746 tonnes from large scale miners.
Large gold producers delivered 11,2 tonnes to Fidelity in 2021 whilst small-scale producers contributed 18,5 tonnes. The highest tonnage of gold was delivered in the fourth quarter when small scale miners delivered a record 7,6 tonnes, whilst primary producers weighed in with 3,1 tonnes.