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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter

Government efforts to increase gold deliveries through official channels are gathering momentum and yesterday 17 teams were deployed across the eight mining provinces to carry out a week-long monitoring and surveillance blitz.

The exercise began yesterday and will end on March 8.

The country produced 35 tonnes of the yellow metal last year and is targeting to produce at least 40 tonnes although Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando said the sector could produce up to 50 tonnes.

The assessment teams were sent off by Minister Chitando during the 2023 First Gold Mobilisation Exercise deployment workshop. 

In his remarks, Minister Chitando called on the gold sector to put all efforts in contributing its target of US$4 billion in the overall target of a mining industry worth at least US$12 billion by the end of the year.

“We really would want to put as much effort as we can in achieving our set target and I believe if we put our hands together we can achieve our target,” Minister Chitando said.

He commended the small-scale and artisanal miners for their contribution of 23 tonnes to last year’s production of 35 tonnes and said they had the potential to do more especially following the unveiling of a US$10 million loan facility by Government for them two weeks ago.

“We also want to ensure that we engage in responsible mining by observing the country’s laws be they labour, immigration and environmental laws among others,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Pfungwa Kunaka said it was through efforts such as the gold mobilisation that it could ensure compliance for the gold mining sector, ensure growth and reach set targets.

“The gold mobilisation blitz, remains an effective exercise that the Government of Zimbabwe has identified as a driving force to ensure we increase the deliveries of gold to Fidelity Gold Refinery hence the growth of the mining sector and the Zimbabwean economy at large.

“The monitoring and surveillance exercise is intended to raise the amount of gold delivered to Fidelity Gold Refinery and to ensure accountability by stakeholders. 

“We must ensure that we conduct the exercise diligently and show innovativeness as we conduct inspections of the production plants as we go through the various stages of production. We would also want records on all hammer mills and mobile gold processing units be collected. That way we will identify leakages and illegal operations. We hope this will open room for gold to successfully find its way to FGR,” Mr Kunaka said.

FGR chief executive officer Mr Peter Magaramombe said his organisation would strive to pay miners on delivery and matching international prices.

“We will ensure competitive pricing which is benchmarked on the international standards and that payment would be made in cash at the gold mining centres,” he said.

Mr Magaramombe added that they would open more gold buying centres especially at the six gold services centres that will be opened this year.

Mr Willie Munhutu from the National Gold Mobilisation Technical Taskforce said there was need to improve security at airports and other entry and exit points to curb leakages.

“Lack of gold detectors at entry and exit points has resulted in smuggling,” he said and also called on Government to keep records of manufacturers of mining equipment and their customers to improve transparency and accountability in the sector.

Chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, Mr Wellington Takavarasha said with increased Government support, small-scale and artisanal miners had the potential to produce 80 tonnes of gold annually.

“Government should provide geological data to artisanal and small-scale miners and ensure access to capital, grants and lines of credit,” Mr Takavarasha said.

He applauded Government for the US$10 million facility and called for more capacity building initiatives.

The surveillance exercise is set to be held quarterly to improve gold deliveries to FGR.