Fidelity disburses over $250 million to small-scale miners
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) subsidiary Fidelity Printers and Refineries (FPR) has over the past four years disbursed more than $250 million to at least 300 small-scale miners through its Gold Development Initiative Fund (GDIF) as part of efforts to boost production and mop up the yellow metal.
FPR general manager Mr Fradreck Kunaka told Sunday News Business in e-mailed responses that over $200 million was distributed through the GDIF since its inception in 2016 with over $100 million being accessed by smallscale miners last year.
FPR introduced the GDIF as part of its initiative to enhance economic productivity through promotion and development of the gold mining industry in the country.
“The GDIF has disbursed $252 861 216,06 to gold producers since inception, of which $137 706 220,62 was disbursed in 2019. A total of 318 smallscale producers have benefited from the GDIF spread across all of the provinces of Zimbabwe,” he said.
Mr Kunaka said the fund had benefited small-scale in a number of ways such as mechanisation of operations, technical and advisory services, formalisation of operations, financial inclusion, upskilling and adoption of responsible mining methods, improved financial security and viability of projects as well as improved stakeholder engagement and collaboration on gold mining issues.
The GDIF is also attributed to playing a big part in enabling small-scale miners to deliver more gold to FPR than primary or big producers since 2017. The secondary producers have even continued to upstage the large-scale mining companies on monthly contributions to the country’s sole gold buyer and exporter since 2017.
Gold deliveries to FPR for the period January to 31 December 2019 were 27,66 tonnes with artisanal and small-scale miners accounting for 63 percent (17 478,74kgs) of total gold deliveries (27 650,26kgs). Last year’s deliveries experienced a decline of 17 percent from 33,29 tonnes recorded during the same period in 2018.
Mr Kunaka said the fund was still active and efforts were being made to remodel it to further attract more beneficiaries. “The facility is ongoing and is projected to grow in terms of number of beneficiaries, product bouquets and the amount of funding disbursed. The first two years were earmarked at formalisation of small-scale miners and financial inclusion (demystifying provision of financial services to the smallscale sector). We have now entered the growth stage, where the fund has identified a database of projects to support and nurture for the future of the gold industry,” he said.
Mr Kunaka, however, said a number of miners failed to access the fund owing to lack of information.
“Challenges which have been faced b y
miners in accessing the facility have been lack of adequate relevant documentation ( know- your- customer and irregular mine documentation), inadequate geological exploration work to support borrowing need, failure to provide up to date mining inspection and Environmental Impact Assessment certificates,” he said.
Mr Kunaka further noted that for miners to access the fund there was a need for them to adhere to all mining regulations and have records of selling their gold to FPR.
He, however, said miners continue to face a myriad of challenges in their efforts to enhance production chief among them being power, fuel shortages, unreliable plant and equipment, refractory ores, skills challenges and poor resource definition.
As part of its efforts to improve gold production, FPR has lined up a number of programmes such as gold mining regional conferences to serve as a stakeholder engagement forum, targeted training on the fundamentals of mining to bridge the skills gap of small-scale miners and a women and youth in mining incubation programme.