The Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) needs close to US$3 million to capacitate all its gold operations dotted across the country it jointly owns with the small-scale miners.
Benard Rinomhota
ZMDC general manager Mr. Blessed Chitambira revealed this during a recent field day tour of Bubi Gold Milling Centre in Matabeleland North province by the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando and his counterpart Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube.
The field day tour also saw the two ministers accompanied by other government officials touring Breakfast Gold Mine, a joint venture operation owned by Bubi Small-scale Miners Association and ZMDC.
“We need close to US$3 million to capacitate all our joint venture gold operations that we own together with the small-scale miners.
“Out of the initial 10, we then partially capacitate five and this one (Breakfast Gold Mine) is one of them.
“When l say, we ‘partially capacitated’ what it means we provided them with a compressor, and a generator; but still there is more that is required,” said Mr. Chitambira during a site visit of the mine.
The gold mine, Mr. Chitambira said is presently producing 20 tonnes of ore per week and the target is to have the mine produce 60 tonnes.
“We want this mine because it has got the capacity to produce 60 tonnes, 20 being waste and 60 being ore,” he said.
The ZMDC boss said the small-scale miners at the mine need to be equipped with modern technology such as a hoist as at the moment the miners are operating with rudimentary hoist.
“We need to put a proper hoist that they require and also we need to equip them with a ladder as they go deeper like this mine is currently 60 metres deep,” said Mr. Chitambira.
ZMDC is a government-owned mining company with a number of assets in different mining sub-sectors across the country.
The parastatal is also looking forward to establishing 20 gold milling centres across the country to boost the production of the yellow metal by small-scale miners.
And the Bubi Gold Milling Centre, is a pilot project by the government officially commissioned by Vice President Dr. Constantino Chiwenga in 2019.
The concept of gold milling centres is an initiative aimed at increasing production and delivery of the yellow metal by players in the small scale mining industry.
At present, the small-scale miners account for the bulk of the gold produced in Zimbabwe.
Last year, Zimbabwe produced 33,2 tonnes of gold against a target of 40 tonnes and the projections were missed largely because of power constraints, among others.
This article first appeared in the July 2020 issue of Mining Zimbabwe Magazine