Falling Gold Deliveries Renew Calls To End FPR’s Monopoly As Sole Buyer
Declining gold deliverables in Zimbabwe have renewed calls for the government to end the Fidelity Printers and Refineries as the sole buyer of gold in the country.
The current set up has reportedly resulted in small scale miners choosing to smuggle their precious metal through the country’s porous borders.
FPR has been criticised for failing to pay miners on time prompting them to withhold and sell elsewhere.
According to data from FPR, small scale miners delivered 473.10 kilogrammes of gold in October against 1 544.09kg, which were delivered last year which translates to 69.36% drop.
Total gold deliveries dropped 43.06% to 1 368 kilogrammes from 2 402kg delivered in the comparable period last year and were near flat from last month after increasing 0.42%.
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Primary producers brought in 894.74kg, an increase of 4.28% from 858.02kg last year. However, month on month deliveries fell 8.39% from 976.67kg in September.
FPR’s General Manager Fradreck Kunaka attributed the decline to the coronavirus which he said affected production. He said:
The impacts of the lockdowns will continue to be felt up to end of year with a possibility of extending further given the reported second round of infections. As long as Covid 19 is upon us, the gold deliveries will likely not show any meaningful increase since we do not locally produce the mining inputs or the cash required to pay for the gold delivered by small scale miners.
The statistics are worrying considering that the gold industry accounts for 45% of mineral exports and employs around 32% of total formal mining employment while more than 500 000 are engaged in artisanal and small-scale gold mining.
Zimbabwe may fail to achieve the intended US$12 billion mining industry by 2023, a vision that was premised at increasing the sector’s contribution to the economy.
The mining sector is critical in generating foreign currency as it has been contributing about 70 percent of the country’s forex earnings.
More: Financial Express
