Government’s thrust is to increase gold production from the current levels of about 20.87 tonnes in 2020 (inclusive of gold produced from PGMs processing) to about 100 tonnes by 2023, contributing USD4 billion to the USD12billion milestone, Great Dyke News 24 reports.
Speaking during at the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe Annual Conference in Victoria Falls, Minister of Mines and Mining Development Winston Chitando said in order to achieve this target, government is mainly looking at enhancing exploration and development of medium to large scale mines as well as capacitation of small-scale miners.
“Furthermore, Government seeks to intensify its monitoring and surveillance exercises to curb illicit trade of gold and ensure gold is delivered to Fidelity Printers and Refiners.
“I am happy to report that there are a number of projects coming up that will help increase gold production.
These include Shamva Gold Mine which was commissioned late last year; Eureka Gold Mine which is set to resume operations by end of July this year. Caledonia Mine has completed installation of its new USD60 million shaft that is expected to increase production.
“Various other projects are currently at exploration stage such as Mutoko Resources.
“Government, through the ministry, is also working with various private players so as to capacitate small scale miners through the introduction of private led gold service centres as well as command mining, using the same model as in agriculture. This is set to increase production from the small-scale miners,” he said.
He added that government is continuously reforming its ways of doing business in order to remove bottlenecks that delay the flow of business in the mining sector and the national economy at large. Minister Chitando applauded President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Second Republic for the hard stance in stamping out corruption in the economy.
According to Chitando, the coal and hydrocarbons sub-sector is set to contribute more than $1 billion in revenue by 2023.
“Various projects are ongoing within the subsector, with major coal producers Hwange, Makomo Resources and Zambezi Gas expanding their operations as well as ramping up production.
“It is also pleasing to note that various companies have installed coke oven batteries for the value addition of coal.
“These include South Mining, Dinson Colliery, Zimbabwe Zhongxin and Jin An. Similarly, significant progress is being expected in development of Coal Bed Methane gas (CBM) resources in Zimbabwe,” he said.
The conference which is running under the theme ‘Navigating Turbulent Times’- Sustaining Growth of the Mining Industry In The Midst Of COVID-19 is being attended by a number of government officials including the Vice President, Retired General Constantino Chiwenga, Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube and mining industry executives.
