Small scale miners to come under spotlight at ZMF indaba

THE Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation (ZMF) would next week hold a summit in Harare to discuss issues related to small scale mining operations and how to improve the industry.

Mines and Mining Development Minister, Mr Winston Chitando, will be the guest of honour at the meeting scheduled for 21 to 22 March at the Harare International Conference Centre(HICC).

ZMF chief executive,Mr Wellington Takavarasha, said the meeting will cover policy advocacy, financial inclusion and formalisation of small scale miners operations among other topics.

“We will be having a summit next week in Harare as ZMF. The guest speaker at the summit will be Honourable Winston Chitando who will deliver the keynote address. The summit deliberations will be on issues and concerns of our miners, legal implications, formalisation and regularisation, sustainable mining, financial inclusion, policy advocacy, relationship between small scale miners and large mining corporate and regional comparison,” he said.

ZMF has close to 40 mining association affiliates. In the past, small-scale miners have complained about lack of basic mining equipment to enhance their productivity as most of the richest mineral seams tend to occur at greater depths making it difficult for the miners to tap into the resources as they were using traditional hand tools.

Government has shown commitment to supporting operations of small scale miners by availing different financial facilities for their operations. In recognition of the contribution of the small-scale mining sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, it also came up with a number of initiatives such as the $40 million Gold Development Initiative to boost output. Under the initiative, about 300 small-scale gold miners across the country accessed the loans that were disbursed through Fidelity Printers and Refiners. — @PrinceNkosy102.