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REVELATIONS in our edition yesterday that the dump at State-owned Kwekwe Roasting Plant has gold worth a whopping $122 million speaks volume about who we are as Zimbabweans. The residues reveal what we have always known — we are a very rich nation! According to a confidential report prepared by Peacocke and Simpson Minerals Processing Engineering submitted to Government via the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, the total gold content at the four dumps at the Kwekwe Roasting Plant is +/-3 024 kilogrammes. This translates to 97 220 ounces or three tonnes of gold.

Simple mathematics will show that the gold is worth $122 886 080 at current international prices. That is no pocket money. It can almost pay the whole civil service whose monthly salary bill hovers around $190 million.

That said, we shudder to imagine that the relevant ministry got the Peacocke and Simpson Report in 2007. We are in 2016. Eight years on, the dump remains a dumpsite just like any ordinary residue. We do not have an axe to grind with anyone as some people might want to think, but surely we believe eight years is enough time for anyone in their jobs to have jolted into action. That action could be fast tracking the identification of an investor or better still going it alone. We could mobilise resources and extract the gold since it is on the surface.

Why trouble ourselves hunting for a foreign investor when only $13,4 million is required to set up the requisite infrastructure? Don’t such processes breed corruption? The returns on the Kwekwe Roasting Plant are just too rich to pocket ourselves than surrender to some foreigner somewhere. Imagine investing $13,4 million for a $122 million.

We know there are costs associated with such investment, but surely the nation will register a noble profit. We are experiencing economic hardships mirrored by cash shortages and the liquidity crunch stubbornly staring Treasury in the face.

The prevailing economic environment demands that we harness all we have as a nation if we are to escape the unforgiving harsh economics. After all God abundantly blessed this nation. We do not deserve the poverty that we are imposing on ourselves. Let us get our act together and enjoy the honey and milk that our nation is through absolute hard work and transparency.

We are not novices in mining. We believe lessons were learnt at Chiadzwa. It is time we capacitate Government vehicles like the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) or the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and enable them do that which they were created.

The Kwekwe Roasting Plant must be urgently resuscitated. It should feel treasonous for public office holders to let such reports as the one produced by Peacocke and Simpson gather dust in some cardboard in their offices. No-one needs a reminder that Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa is having sleepless nights over how to raise salaries for our civil servants.

The Kwekwe Roasting Plant must not be allowed to rot. Its resuscitation will create jobs for our people, the majority of whom have turned to street vending. It will also obviously generate revenue for a Government long strangled by illegal Western sanctions.

While the embargo has been ruinous, it can be easily defeated if, as a nation, we grab such manna-like opportunities as exemplified by the Kwekwe Roasting Plant.

Bureaucracy must not be allowed to starve the nation. Indeed difficult moments demand urgent action, let us have this manna — the three tonnes of gold “rotting” at the Kwekwe Roasting Plant. With this instalment, we humbly urge the Mines and Mining Development Permanent Secretary Professor Francis Gudyanga to urgently activate the Kwekwe Roasting Plant.

The adjudicating process for a potential investor cannot go on forever when our national purse is in urgent need of refilling. Government cannot survive on taxes alone, but by grabbing such opportunities as reflected by the Kwekwe Roasting Plant.

It is our belief too that the Kwekwe Roasting Plant is a replica of various other promising projects lying idle across the country.