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RESERVE Bank governor John Mangudya says Zimbabwe should decriminalise gold possession and engage miners on norms and principles of responsible gold trading.

In his mid-term monetary policy review statement yesterday, the central bank boss proposed implementation of a raft of policy measures to incentivise gold production and legal trading of the mineral.

“There’s a need to decriminalise the possession of gold and instead focus on engaging the artisanal miners on the norms and principles of responsible gold trading in line with best practice,” he said.

“To this end, the Reserve Bank, in consultation with the relevant authorities, is currently working on a policy to decriminalise the possession of gold in order to allow those in possession of gold to sell it to Fidelity Printers and Refiners.”

To promote improved gold production, Mangudya said the RBZ, working with the government and relevant private sector stakeholders, was keen to reduce gold leakages and ensure that all gold in Zimbabwe was sold through normal channels.

He said unlocking more value from the gold sector required deliberate collective efforts.

Among his propositions is rationalisation of charges levied to producers.

These include rural district levies, mining licence and ground rental fees, EMA and MMCZ charges as well as National Parks and Wildlife mining fees.

Mangudya also called for re-alignment of electricity tariffs on gold mining to those obtaining in other sectors like the chrome sector as well as increased access to long term funding for both small and large scale gold producers.

Improving gold deliveries is at the heart of the country’s economic blue-print, Zim-Asset, which is anchored on mobilisation of mineral resources to fund national developmental projects.

“The bank’s broad policy action areas especially focusing on gold revolve around enhancing the country’s production as well as building national foreign exchange reserves,” said Mangudya.

He noted how, despite the decline in international prices, gold production, which had fallen to around 3,471 kilogrammes in 2008, has been steadily increasing since 2009 to reach a level of 13,900 kilogrammes in 2014.

Over the past five years, large scale producers have contributed 75 percent to total gold production, while the balance (25 percent) was accounted for by small-scale miners.

Mangudya said increased monitoring efforts by the gold mobilisation committee, the Ministry of Mines, RBZ and the police’s border patrol unit, has seen the contribution of small-scale miners increasing steadily this year to current averages of 37 percent.

“Gold deliveries during the first half of 2015 were 8,181.16 kilogrammes, and if the current trend continues, gold production for the whole year would surpass 13,899.9 kilogrammes achieved in 2014 to around 16 tonnes,” said Mangudya.

He said the central bank was making concerted efforts to facilitate gold production in the country through the arrangement of financing facilities which also include the mechanisation of small-scale producers’ operations.

To date, he said, $5 million has been disbursed for this purpose.

Zimbabwe is one of the top gold producers in Africa with a capacity to increase gold output to more than 30 tonnes per year.