The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) will soon start working on a comprehensive database of small-scale and artisanal miners as it forges ahead to ensure operations are formalised.
ZMF chief executive officer Mr Wellington Takavarasha said there was a need for the Government to legalise mining activities by small-scale and artisanal miners to improve mineral production as well as to enable them to contribute meaningfully to the turnaround of the country’s economy.
“We are now talking about gold development initiative, which is mainly centred on making sure that artisanal miners are sensitised or imparted with the knowledge that whatever they are doing plays a big part in the mainstream economy. So we are going to register and know where they are mining and the quantities they are producing.
“We intend to come up with a comprehensive database for artisanal miners. However, it has to be known that when we talk about formalisation we aren’t talking about decriminalisation. We are referring to the process of mopping up the gold and transparency in terms of its trading while we militate against environmental issues,” said Mr Takavarasha.
According to statistics from ZMF about 600 000 registered and non-registered small-scale and artisanal miners are involved in the extraction of various minerals with most of them being in gold production.
However, organisations representing small-scale and artisanal miners are of the view that their contribution towards the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was being affected by numerous regulations and penalties imposed on them by various Government departments.
The punitive regulations and alleged bureaucracy in the gold sector has over the years contributed to immense leakages as unscrupulous individuals smuggled the mineral outside the country.
ZMF national chairperson, Mr Lufeyi Shato said there was a need for the Government to allow miners’ organisations to take a lead in the mobilisation and formalisation of small-scale and artisanal miners.
“The reason why the formalisation of artisanal miners is taking long is solely due to the fact that the Government wants to be in the forefront in initiating the process.
“We have for long told the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to provide us with transport to conduct outreach programmes and let us take the lead because we know and we are familiar with the people,” said Mr Shato.
The miners also welcomed the Government’s $20 million gold development initiative facility for small-scale miners.
The initiative, which is expected to boost production, also entails the formalisation process of small-scale gold producers in line with responsible gold mining standards.
“We are quite happy about the pronouncement of a $20 million gold development initiative facility for small-scale miners and the fact that it will be run by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe through Fidelity Printers and Refiners.
“We are now working on the criteria, on how it is going to be distributed among small-scale and artisanal miners. However, in such instances when funding is meant for farmers it is released rather promptly thus we hope this funding will be released expeditiously,” said Mr Takavarasha.
He said the $20 million gold development facility would go a long way towards improving production in the sector.
“We hope the facility will go a long way in enhancing gold production. Production had dropped by 30 kilogrammes from what was achieved last year during the same period. The drop is largely due to unresolved disputes and issues of massive non-operational claims so we are urging our members to validate their inspection certificates. We need to reach the 10 tonnes target which we were given by Treasury as at the moment we are at 5,5 tonnes,” said Mr Takavarasha.
His sentiments were reiterated by former ZMF president Mr Trynos Nkomo who stated that the Government should work on empowering small-scale miners to grow.
“It’s (gold development facility) a good thing because the Government has realised that small-scale miners contribute a lot to the country’s gold production and GDP but what is important is to graduate to medium-scale through capacitating them. So the support given to small-scale miners will enable them to acquire equipment as well as to develop skills and create employment,” he said.
@DNsingo
