Govt urged to repossess idle gold claims
GOVERNMENT has been urged to repossess idle gold claims held for speculative purposes and redistribute them to registered miners including small-scale and artisanal miners to boost production in the sector.
The call comes amid reports that of the 22 tonnes of gold produced last year, 10 tonnes came from small-scale and artisanal miners.
In an interview last week, Chegutu West legislator Cde Dexter Nduna said there were gold claims held for speculative purposes when they could be utilised for the country’s economic development.
“I am one of those people who has moved a motion in Parliament to decriminalise artisanal mining aware that there is more than 600 000 artisanal miners in the whole country.
“His Excellency (President Mugabe) has alluded to the fact that in 2016, out of the 22 tonnes that Zimbabwe produced in terms of gold, 10 tonnes were produced by small-scale and artisanal miners,” he said.
Cde Nduna appealed to Vice President Mnangagwa to intervene and help repeal some draconian laws barring gold prospecting and possession without a licence.
VP Mnangagwa was in Chegutu inspect GMB facilities in the town.
He, however, said gold miners had to regularise their papers to be considered for mining in the area.
“We must look after our people but the miners should be registered with the relevant authorities while the Mines and Mining Development Ministry is working on the laws,” he said.
Mashonaland West Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Faber Chidarikire also argued that most of the artisanal miners had fake papers.
“Most of them are not registered and their activities are not legal. They need to be registered so that their activities are regularised,” he said.
Cde Nduna, however, argued that it was prudent for Government to repossess the idle claims even before repealing the laws governing gold mining in Zimbabwe.
“The archaic, moribund and rudimental 1951 Mines and Minerals Act Section 3: 68 which criminalises possession of gold, which criminalises prospecting without a licence because what we see is a number of claims that are held for speculative purposes,” he said.
Cde Nduna further argued that Chegutu had the largest gold reserves in the whole of Africa in the form of Peakstone Peerless Mine in Ward 25.
“There is a small piece of open cast mining. The rest of the claims are held for speculative purposes and that mine is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Australian Stock Exchange and the shares and the value are premised on the value of the gold in the reserves,” he said.
The legislator, who has passionately advocated for the decriminalisation of gold panning, said the idle claims should be given to small-scale miners and artisanal miners to boost production.
More than 3 000 artisanal miners were arrested in 2015 during a police operation code-named “Chikorokoza Chapera”.
The gold panners were, however, released during a Presidential Amnesty.
“If we do not repeal those laws and we do not give (idle claims) to the artisanal miners . . . we are going to see a downward trend in terms of deliveries to Fidelity Printers,” Cde Nduna said.
He said the year police engaged in Chikorokoza Chapera, deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refineries declined from 18 tonnes to one tonne.
“Deliveries have since gone up to 10 tonnes from artisanal and small-scale miners and this should certainly be a laudable way of dealing with our unemployed youths and our economic situation while formalising the informal mining sector as we seek to plug illicit outflows using our own resources and claims,” he said.
A Zimbabwe Mining Federation report produced last year showed that smallscale miners’ production rose from three tonnes of gold in 2014 to seven tonnes last year.
The miners were also expected to double their output to more than 14 tonnes.
The sector, according to the report, had more than 600 000 small-scale miners of whom about 25 000 are registered.
Zimbabwe also has a further 700 000 both registered and unregistered artisanal miners contributing to the country’s gold production.