The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has dispatched 11 teams of the Gold Mobilisation National Taskforce to the country’s eight mining provinces as it steps up efforts to boost gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refineries (FPR) and achieve the US$12 billion target by 2023 in line with vision 2030.
The mobilisation team will educate miners on the environmental regulations, mining policies and practices and records keeping.
The taskforce will ensure that the Government set target of 60 tonnes gold deliveries to FPR is met compared to 32 tonnes last year.
In a circular to its members, the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) said: “This memo serves to notify all miners that The Gold Mobilization Team (GMT) will be dispatched from Friday to all provinces and check for compliance issues.”
“Miners are therefore urged to be compliant with all mining legislative issues and that mine records are readily available for inspection purposes. One of the terms of reference for the GMT is for miners to account for all the gold extracted,” said ZMF chief executive officer (CEO) Mr Wellington Takavarasha.
Young Miners Foundation (YMF) CEO, Mr Payne Kupfuwa also urged young miners to comply and provide all the requisite records required by the taskforce when they visit their mines.
The national taskforce is a collaborative effort that involves the country’s security apparatus and the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and its primary mandate is to make sure that all gold produced in the country is delivered to FPR.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando is on record stating that the US$12 billion mining industry target by 2023 was achievable as part of the broader macroeconomic roadmap towards achieving an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
In 2019, President Mnangagwa launched the US$12 billion mining industry roadmap where gold is expected to contribute US$4 billion, platinum US$3 billion while chrome, iron, steel, diamonds and coal will contribute US$1 billion each.
Lithium is expected to contribute US$500 million while other minerals contribute US$1,5 billion.
