Small-scale miners contribute bulk of Zimbabwe’s gold output

Business Reporter
The country’s gold output in the last seven months amounted to 18 940 kilogrammes with the bulk coming from small-scale miners who have contributed 11 444 kilogrammes while output from formal mines is 7 496 kilogrammes, latest figures from Fidelity Printers and Refiners.

In the same period last year, a cumulative of 12 852kg of the yellow metal had been produced with small scale miners contributing 6 824kg with large-scale miners chipping in with 6 027kg.

Figures from Fidelity, in July show that small scale miners delivered 965kg and primary producers had 1 998kg.

In June, small scale miners had 1 968kg and primary producers delivered 837kg while in May, 1 939kg and 1 055kg was delivered by small scale miners and primary producers respectively.

Miner-Image from Shutterstock

The mining industry is one of the major economic mainstays to anchor the country towards an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.

The growth of a multi-billion dollar industry will be driven by gold, platinum, diamond, chrome, iron ore, lithium, coal, and other strategic minerals.

The small-scale miners’ success story has also generated a lot of interest in the mining sector by indigenous citizens, including women, who are increasingly finding their ground and are in the process of graduating into medium scale to large scale miners.

Platinum- Image taken from Shutterstock

During the Mine Entra in July, President Mnangagwa said the country’s mining sector is registering unprecedented growth, for the first time in history, with earnings jumping to US$5,2 billion in 2021 from about US$2,9 billion in 2017 when the New Dispensation came into being, which is indicative of the positive gains realised from Government’s economic reform agenda.

Money- Image taken from Shutterstock

Government has set an ambitious target for the mining sector to realise a US$12 billion milestone by 2023 and this, despite unforeseen shocks, remains certain, judging by the continued momentum across key subsectors, and the newly commissioned signature projects covering different mineral segments.

Article Source: The Chronicle