Gold target now beyond reach — Govt
IT has become almost impossible for gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners to reach the targeted 40 tonnes, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister, Polite Kambamura, has said.
Although Government had set an ambitious target of 40 tonnes for the year 2019 following an overwhelming 33,2 tonnes attained last year, production challenges have negatively affected output in the course of the year.
Recent months have seen a drop in gold deliveries. For instance, during the first quarter deliveries reached 3,9 tonnes in the month of February but dropped sharply to about 1,5 tonnes in June. The period July, August and September averaged 2,6 tonnes. As of September, about 20,5 tonnes had been delivered to Fidelity compared to 29 tonnes that had been delivered by the same time last year. Deputy Minister Kambamura said it was clear that this year the gold sector had performed poorly.
“Currently we are not on course to meet the gold target, what we are recording is not what we had planned. Things are not going according to plan with regards to gold production,” he said.
e Deputy Minister said that power outages among other challenges had crippled the gold production sector.
“We have several issues like power outages and complaints from miners especially smallscale miners that we never dealt with diligently and I think that contributed to the drastic fall in gold production. I think going forward, we might need to have dedicated power lines to mines as a panacea to the power outages,” he said.
e Deputy Minister also acknowledged concerns over the gold export retention threshold of 55 percent, which he said had possibly frustrated confidence in the domestic gold market. “Confidence became low in the gold mining sector and that also contributed in the sharp decrease in gold produced,” he said.
Government reviewed downwards the gold retention from 70/30 percent to 55/45 percent. Zimbabwe Miners Federation spokesman Mr Dosman Mangisi said the finance sector introduced policies that were not friendly to the mining sector.
“Policy inconsistencies came in hard to the mining sector. The downward review of the retention impacted negatively. The interbank rate also became unfriendly to the sector as well as the banning of the multi-currency system. In fact the scope changed in a short space of time leaving miners stranded,” said Mr Mangisi.
“Given the 55/45 percent retention miners were now failing to secure fuel and procure explosives. At the same time rates are going up and production is going down, making it difficult for miners to carry on.”
ZMF would be holding its annual conference in Gweru next week to discuss these and other challenges with stakeholders. President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to grace the occasion slated for November 5 to 6.
“We are indeed looking forward to coming up with long lasting solutions that will turn around the mining sector and increase production in the process,” said Mr Mangisi.