The ManicaPost
Business Correspondent
THE inaugural Manicaland Small Scale Miners Indaba is on next Friday at the Golden Peacock Villa Hotel in Mutare.
Over 100 small scale -miners and artisanal miners (formerly called makorokoza or illegal gold panners) representative groups as well as key stakeholders in the mining sector are expected to engage and chart a way forward on the development and formalisation drive of small scale and artisanal mining in the province.
Running under the theme: “Taking Small Scale Mining as a Business”, the indaba which will be held as a breakfast meeting was organised by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Manicaland Chapter in conjunction with Manicaland Miners Association, the main regional union for small scale miners.
Mines and Mining Development Minister, Cde Walter Chidhakwa, is expected to be the official guest of honour while top officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation, the apex body of small-scale miners are also expected to make keynote presentations at the indaba.
The initiative comes at a time when Government is pushing for increase in gold deliveries this year with small scale gold miners and artisanal miners expected to be key drivers in achieving the benchmarked targets of 28 tonnes. This will be a new record if achieved with the highest record so far being 27 tonnes in 1999.
Last year small-scale gold miners achieved the 10 tonnes target set by the Government.
In 2014, Government initiated the formalisation drive of artisanal mining to create formal employment for the many idle youths in gold mining communities countrywide that were resorting to illegal gold panning to earn a decent living.
However, though to date some notable strides have been made as some artisanal miners have since embraced the formalisation route by registering through the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, there is still a large number that is still preferring the old cat and mouse running games with law enforcement agents.
MMA chairman, Mr Lovemore Kasha, said to try and mend bridges and help Government’s formalisation drive, such engagement platforms with Government and stakeholders were a stepping stone.
Ha added that formalisation would not only help improve productivity, but also increase revenue flows to Treasury after reducing the smuggling of the yellow metal to black markets in neighbouring countries, which has been rife in past years through illegal gold panning.
“We are really hoping Manicaland small scale and artisanal miners will take this opportunity seriously to formally engage with Government. We always cry for opportunities to interface with the Minister (Mines and Mining Development Minister) and now we will have his audience to speak and exchange viewpoints. This is the way forward to actively play a part in growing our economy and not just cry and blame each other without making any efforts to engage,” said Mr Kasha.
Mr Kasha added that although gold is the country’s second largest mineral export earner after platinum, most small scale miners were still using picks and shovels for extraction, which is labour intensive and less productive. He said mechanisation was key to increasing productivity in the sector.
ZNCC manageress for Manicaland and Chiredzi Ms Perpetual Guwila said as a chamber they had since embraced Governments efforts to capacitate and help formalise Small to Medium Enterprises, but had overlooked the small scale and artisanal miners in the mining sector.
“Mining is a business and this will be our focus point as a chamber, to assist small scale and artisanal miners with capacity building skills to professionally and ethically run their mining operations. Most of them are struggling to access bank loans regardless of having consistent gold delivery records to Fidelity Printers and Refiners. Win-win solutions can be bridged if we manage to help formalise their mining operations as formal business entities. Even banks will start taking them seriously once this is done,” said Ms Guwila.
Ms Guwila said a lot of grey areas will be discussed to try and create an enabling environment for small scale and artisanal miners especially the issues concerning mechanisation and access to affordable loans for the growing sector.
