Story by Owen Mandovha
Government has reiterated its commitment to ensuring all gold produced in the country is marketed through official channels and accounted for to achieve the set gold delivery targets.
A second gold mobilisation engagement held in Harare this Wednesday saw government revealing that it is taking stern measures to deal with unscrupulous gold producers who are leaking the precious mineral.
“We are going to put stern measures so as to plug leakages. So far our teams will scrutinize output for every gold producer and all the metallurgical records and make sure that all gold produced is channeled officially,” said Mines and Mining Development Minister, Honourable Winston Chitando.
The engagement also saw Fidelity Printers and Refiners revealing that mobile gold buying units have been set up, while two other gold buying centres are being developed to increase deliveries of the yellow metal to government.
Managing Director, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, Mr Philip Magaramombe explained, “Fidelity has got enough cash to buy gold and we have set up a mobile gold buying unit to improve convenience to our producers. Fidelity is also establishing gold buying centers in Shamva and Mt Darwin so as to mobilise more gold.”
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Mines has projected an impressive performance by the mining industry of 10.8% growth this year, anchored on the gold mobilisation strategies.
Last year, the mining industry contributed about 80 percent of export earnings, with a similar feat expected to be repeated this year.
