Govt pledges support to artisanal miners

18 Sep, 2016 - 00:09 0 Views
Govt pledges support to artisanal miners Dr John Mangudya

The Sunday News

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Roberta Katunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE Government has pledged to avail support to the country’s artisanal and small-scale miners by improving the ease of doing business as the sector is the one helping Zimbabwe get foreign currency, an official said.
Addressing miners at the Great Dyke Business Investment Forum in Zvishavane recently, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya (pictured)said the Government was there to provide the miners with necessary incentives to produce as without production there is no fiscal space.

“We need to minimise the cost of doing business in the country and remove obstacles of production otherwise we will not succeed in what we are doing. Let us all come together to help these artisanal miners as they are an important component to getting forex,” said Dr Mangudya.

Dr Mangudya said they were aware of the challenges the miners were facing while trying to sell gold to Fidelity Printers which include getting arrested. He said he was going to meet Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa to discuss the issue.

“We do not want people getting arrested for selling gold through the proper channels as we need those minerals. If countries like Botswana are surviving on diamonds, why can’t we do the same? For the past 36 years only 580 tonnes has been mined out of about 13 to 15 million tonnes underground hence Zimbabwe has the opportunity to make a lot of money from its resources,” he said.

An artisanal miner Mr Elijah Ncube who outlined the challenges they were facing said miners were operating in abandoned mines or old shafts which pose a risk to their lives as they were prone to accidents.

Mr Ncube said the miners were also facing challenges of selling their gold to Fidelity Printers as they do not have permits. He appealed to the responsibile authorities to assist the artisanal miners with safer working environments and legalise their operations to avoid getting arrested.

“Even though we are aware of the dangers we expose ourselves to by operating in disused mines, we do what we do to survive as illegal mining is our livelihood. We would, however, appreciate help from the Government so that we do everything above board,” he said.

Delegates at the conference concurred on the need for formalisation of artisanal miners operations and bemoaned Government pace in conducting this process. They said the existence of the illegal panners proliferates the black market.

A legal practitioner Mr Tichaona Chivasa emphasised on the importance of small-scale and artisanal miners saying they contribute more than the formal or large-scale miners in terms of gold output.

Mr Chivasa urged the Government to formalise these operations and put the miners in structures or risk losing out on revenue.

According to the Zimbabwe Miners Federation there are about 500 000 artisanal miners in the country.

Meanwhile, Dr Mangudya highlighted some of the major issues his monetary statement will address. He said there was a need to grow trust as a banking sector as the major problem was lack of confidence by the people in the system.

“My monetary statement will outline measures that attract confidence as we are there to build Zimbabwe. This is not a one person job but we all have to play our part. This is the time to make sacrifices in order to improve the economy,” said Dr Mangudya.

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