GOVERNMENT has expressed concern over the smuggling of the
country’s gold to Dubai via South Africa, and is putting in place measures to
curb the vice so as to ensure increased formal deliveries of the precious
metal.
Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli
Ncube revealed this on Thursday during a field day at the Bubi Gold Milling
Centre where he was the guest of honour. The centre was commissioned by
Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga last year as a pilot project run by the
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC). The centre was set up to help
increase gold output by the small-scale mining sector.
Government has targeted to establish about 20 more gold
milling centres across the country. Speaking before the tour of the milling
centre and Bubi Gold Mine, which is currently under development, Prof Ncube
said gold contribution to the economy was affected by smuggling.
“The sector has potential to contribute much more if we can
curb the leakages. Government is going ahead with implementing interventions to
curb the smuggling of gold to Dubai through South Africa,” he said.
“One of the interventions is where we have Fidelity
Printers paying a lucrative price for gold sales. We are aware that all
smuggling takes place to Dubai through South Africa and we are losing a lot of
gold and we are doing everything as Government to curb leakages.
“Gold alone generates US$1 billion annually . . . what is
interesting is that the small-scale miners are now the major contributors to
gold production accounting for over 60 percent and at times as much as 70
percent.”
Prof Ncube said Government has adjusted the pricing system
and the gold retention threshold to improve miners’ ability and access of
selling the mineral to Fidelity.
Towards the end of May, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
through Fidelity Printers and Refiners announced a new gold trading framework
where large-scale gold miners are now required to retain 70 percent in hard
currency of their gold sale proceeds while 30 percent is being paid in local
currency.
On the small-scale mining sector, FPR indicated that
players are now being paid a flat rate of US$45 per gramme.
Before the new gold trading framework, gold miners were
being paid 55 percent of their proceeds in foreign currency while 45 percent
was paid in local currency.
Prof Ncube said the gold sub-sector was one of the precious
minerals that world economies across the globe use to hedge against
inflationary pressures hence investors should increase their participation in
the sector.
Speaking at the same occasion, Mines and Mining Development
Minister Winston Chitando said capacitating the mining community was critical
if the country was to move towards attaining a US$12 billion mining economy by
2023.
He said their tour together with Prof Ncube was a
fact-finding mission aimed at establishing how the small-scale miners across
all regions of the country can be capacitated.
“We want to ensure a fast track implementation to
capacitate you (small-scale miners). That’s the reason why we have our guest of
honour here (Bubi Gold Milling Centre). We are on an assignment to ensure you
are capacitated to produce at your full capacity,” he said. Chronicle
0 comments:
Post a Comment