The minister said the speed at which the deal will move now largely depends on the Chinese companies.
SMALL Scale gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners increased by more than 100 percent in the nine months to September at 5 112kgs from 2 412kgs recorded in the same period last year and 757 percent higher than it was in the 2009 comparative.
The improved performance comes on the back of significant reduction of royalties paid by the small miners, results of the Gold Mobilisation Committee and decriminalisation of artisanal miners. The rate of royalty on gold was reduced to one percent from three percent.
Since then there has been a steady increase in deliveries within the subsector with the month of September recording the highest ever deliveries since dollarisation (or perhaps in history) at 737kg.
As a result of this, funding of small miners has become priority for Government. Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa told FinX that Chinese company Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG) is seeking insurer, SinoSure, to underwrite the $100 million loan facility for small scale miners before disbursements to Zimbabwe.
Chidhakwa said that XCMG told him that it has received informal commitment from the State funded insurance company and is now awaiting formalisation of the commitment.
Gold mining is strategic to the growth of the domestic economy in light of the fact that together with platinum, the sectors account for over half of the country’s foreign exchange earnings generated from mining.
“It is our hope that this is done early so that early 2016 we start disbursing the equipment,” he said.
The minister said the speed at which the deal will move now largely depends on the Chinese companies.
The US$100 million facility was consummated in 2014, but no money has been released under the much hyped equipment credit facility. XCMG from Zimbabwe wanted a Government guarantee, which was granted.
Over 50 000 small scale mines are set to benefit through the facility. The facility is administered at CBZ and attracts a 4, 5 percent interest rate over a period of 36 months.
XCMG is the 5th largest mining equipment manufacturer in the world.
Chidhakwa said gold production is targeted at 20 tonnes this year owing to the much greater compliance with regulatory policy requirement to sell to Fidelity Printers and Refiners. – FinX
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