The Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Dr. Polite Kambamura said that the Minex Southern Region has been an eye opener for government towards the attainment of the $12 billion mining sector by 2023 .
In an interview with Great Dyke News 24, on the sidelines of the Minex expo held in Zvishavane today, he said the organizers of the event should visit all mining provinces and educate Artisanal and Small Scale Miners miners.
“Minex should continue and propagate to other mining provinces to also assist government to go and see what will be going on the ground .
“This way they will grow the sector and they will be able to contribute to our vision of meeting the $12 billion mining sector target by 2023.
“It’s not a one man show, but it takes the actual miner on the ground , service providers and other stake holders to come and move forward, “he said .
He added that government will continue going round interacting with miners , and attending to their grievances.
“The day has been successful, we had an interaction with miners and other stakeholders.
“Our miners were speaking out matters affecting them in their sector.
“We have managed to hear their concerns, and we had answered some of the issues and some of the issues we will take them further for consideration.
“It was very interactive, and we will continue going round interacting with miners , and attending to their news .
“What we have noted is that this region is a chrome mining region and the concerns coming from the miners are that of prices of chrome that the pricing should be competitive.
“The other miners, the Chinese mainly, are taking advantage of the miners who are actually mining chrome and sale to them at lower prices.
“So government is working on that issue, and we have tasked MMCZ to look into that matter and very soon we will be coming back to the miners with an implementation with whatever MMCZ would have come up with so that the miners will sale their chrome at a competitive price,” he added.
The event was organized by Minex in partnership Zimshec and the Zimbabwe Miners Federation.
More than 200 miners and exhibitors attended the event which was being held at the YAFM radio park in Zvishavane today.