ZMF welcomes increase of gold support facility

Published: 09 February 2018

THE Zimbabwe Miners' Federation (ZMF) has welcomed the Government's move to increase the gold support facility by 102 percent to $150 million saying this will increase gold production.

Presenting the 2018 monetary policy statement on Wednesday, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya revealed that Government has increased the gold support facility from $74million in a bid to enhance foreign currency generation from gold production.

In a telephone interview yesterday, ZMF chief executive officer Mr Wellington Takavarasha said the facility would go a long way towards capacitating small-scale miners to achieve increased production.

"We appreciate the move by Government because the amount of money that was put in last year only catered for about 300 small-scale miners. Increasing the amount of the gold support facility will improve production in the sector, and thus bringing in foreign currency," he said.

"As a federation, we are happy with the support as it shows the Government's commitment to improving production of the yellow metal.

"Increasing support through such a facility also means the set targets are likely to be met or surpassed."

Mr Takavarasha said also called on the Government to improve its efforts to tap into the informal sector by formalising operations of artisanal miners in order to curb illicit dealings in gold.

Last year, Zimbabwe's gold output from primary producers and small-scale miners shot up by 18 percent to 24.8 tonnes with the bulk of the metal having been delivered by the small-scale mining sector.

Small-scale miners delivered 13.1 tonnes of gold while primary producers produced about 11.7 tonnes.

Recently, the Chamber of Mines said Zimbabwe's mineral revenue is projected to reach $2.5 billion this year up from $2.3 billion last year.

Gold output is expected to reach a record high of 30 tonnes.

Mining remains a critical source of foreign currency for Zimbabwe contributing 59 percent of export earnings in 2017.

The rafts of measures being introduced by Government are expected to increase production in the mining sector and increase the country's foreign currency inflows.

- zimpapers

Tags: ZMF,