Govt finalises facility for smallscale miners:
Government is finalising a mining equipment facility with South Korea aimed at capacitating small scale gold miners.
THIS comes as the country has set an ambitious production target of 28 tonnes of gold for 2016. Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa last week said the facility is a new option after a previously arranged facility with China failed to take off.
“We had hoped that by the beginning of 2016 we will have had the China facility on the table.
“The $100 million Chinese facility would have assisted us going forward but it has not been availed due to the current arrears the country has with Sino Sure.
“We then decided to find other means and we went to South Korea with the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa where we reached an agreement over a mining equipment faci l it y,” sa id Mi n ister Chidhakwa.
“This facility will be underwritten in a different format and we are convinced that it will give us the results that we are looking forward to,” he said.
Minister Chidhakwa said Government currently owes Sinosure, a state funded policy oriented insurance company with independent status of legal person, established for promoting China’s foreign trade and economic co-operation.
Sinosure is mandated in accordance with the Chinese Government’s diplomatic, international trade, industrial, fiscal and finan- cial policies to promote Chinese exports of goods, technologies and services.
Minister Chidhakwa said Government is in constant talks with the Chinese reinsurance firm and there is hope that an agreement will be reached soon.
“We have not received anything tangible from the China facility because the money under the facility needs to be supported by an organisation called Sinosure.
“We are still talking to them and we hope that we will succeed but I want you to know that we have not sat on our laurels,” said Minister Chidhakwa.
Minister Chidhakwa said there was a possibility that Government would remove royalties in the future which currently stand at one percent for sma ll sca le miners.
“I would like, at this juncture, to seriously pose a challenge to the gold sector, that if we are able to meet the 28 tonnes by December 31 2017, I propose to remove royalties for gold which currently stands at one percent for small-scale producers and three percent for the large-scale producers.
“I have already consulted with the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in this regard and we are still discussing this proposal. However, its success also hinges on the gold sector’s uptake of this initiative,” said Minister Chidhakwa.
The expansion in gold output recently has been underpinned by increased contribution of the small scale sector from an average of 25 percent realised over the past five years.
Increased gold output by small scale miners largely benefited from concerted efforts in monitoring of the sector by the Gold Mobilisation Committee.
The good performance by the small scale sector also ref lects that sector’s positive response to the decrease in royalty fees effected by Government in September 2015.