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Oliver Kazunga-Bulawayo Bureau

ZIMBABWE’S total gold output for the first two months of the year spiked by 137 percent to 5 130,7 kilogrammes compared to 2 168,3 kg in the corresponding period in 2021, official figures show.

According to production figures available by Fidelity Printers and Refiners, which is the country’s sole gold buyer, the buoyant small-scale mining sector continues to deliver the bulk of the yellow metal delivering 1 331kg last month compared to 930,9kg by the primary producers.

The Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president, Ms Henrietta Rushwaya whose organisation is the mother body of the small-scale mining industry in the country has said small-scale miners have become dominant players.

Players in the mining sector remain optimistic that Zimbabwe will achieve the US$12 billion milestone by 2023 that the Government has set.

Ms Rushwaya is on record commending FPR for incentivising the small-scale gold mining industry saying a raft of incentives that have been introduced were attracting players in the sector to improve deliveries in the formal system.

Of late, concerns have been raised that Zimbabwe was losing the bulk of the gold through smuggling largely to South Africa and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

“Rampant leakages are now a thing of the past and as such we are determined towards producing more and achieving the US$12 billion milestone,” she told this paper recently.

The Government in October 2019, launched the US$12 billion mining industry roadmap from which the gold sub-sector, as one of the country’s major foreign currency earners, is expected to contribute US$4 billion from US$2,7 billion.

Through good retention offered by FPR, the sole gold buyer has now become the hub for the yellow metal collection unlike in the past where it competed with South Africa where the mineral gold was being smuggled.

As part of incentivising the small-scale mining sector, FPR has come up with a 100 percent forex retention and ZMF has vowed to reciprocate the gesture by delivering the gold to the formal market.