Despite local equipment and consumable suppliers facing several challenges which have hindered them from meeting the demand of the mining sector in Zimbabwe, there is a need to encourage local procurement in the mining industry to enable the growth and development of the country’s economy, Chamber of Mines President Mr Thomas Gono said.
Rudairo Mapuranga
Speaking at the Chamber of Mines 2023 Mining Industry Suppliers Forum running under the theme “Addressing Challenges Affecting Suppliers of the Mining Industry”, Gono said the Chamber of Mines recognises the importance of suppliers in the mining value chain and continues to take the lead in the use of local factors of production.
“The need to encourage local procurement will remain our industry’s long-term goal. This is specifically one of the key tenets of our local mining industry where we know if we buy locally, we also enhance the economic activities of other sectors. The chamber of mines recognizes the importance of suppliers in the mining value chain and continues to take the lead in the use of local factors of production. Demonstrating this, our JSP committee which spearheads the strengthening of linkages between the supplier sector and the mining sector has achieved key milestones and its recommendations are being implemented by the mining houses through local enterprise development, and supply development programs.
“The key products covered under this theme include the manufacture of bolts, steel forges, manufacture of steel, engineering maintenance protective clothing, and work wear, welding and civil works, mining of silica, and brick manufacturing industries. The mining sector interventions include offtake agreements and procurement chain support, capitalization support, training support, safety and compliance audits improvements in lines of business. Such success stories have already been recorded with a growing number of manufacturing companies having benefitted from these initiatives.
“However, our suppliers are facing several challenges, chief among them foreign currency constraints, high-cost structure and competition from imports. This situation has limited the capacity of local suppliers to meet mining companies’ demands to enhance the local content in the mining industry, suppliers should continue to strive to improve on quality of products as well as cost to tap into this opportunity. We need to be competitive, especially on pricing, quality and delivery time,” Gono said.
Speaking at the same event Chamber of Mines CEO Isaac Kwesu said equipment and consumable suppliers are important for the growth and development of the mining industry with their challenges able to affect the performance of the sector.
“Our suppliers remain our lifeline and their challenges negatively affect on the performance of the mining industry,” Kwesu said.