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Mr Tatenda Karimazondo

Lovemore Zigara, Midlands Correspondent
THE mechanisation of small scale and artisanal miners has resulted in the growth of local foundries, which produce products for the industry.

This comes as small scale miners have eclipsed the big mines in terms of production, according to figures from Fidelity Printers and Refineries. Gweru-based foundry, Midlands Metals, has recorded a steady growth in sales owing to the mechanisation of the small scale miners.

Midlands Metals operations director, Mr Tatenda Karimazondo, said sales at the company could improve further should banks offer credit facilities to small scale miners as part of the mechanisation efforts.

“Small scale miners are now contributing 30 percent of our turnover as opposed to large scale miners. With this continued trend we will not be able to supply the market. Therefore, it gives room to other companies to get on board and this means employment creation for more people,” he said.

“We are actually selling about 25 hammer mills to small scale miners every month and this means our miners can now do processing of gold on their own. In the past we did not have products for small scale miners and with support from Government we can easily beat our gold targets as a country.”

Mr Karimazondo could, however, not divulge how much the company was making in terms of figures.

The steel manufacturer is one of the few surviving industries in the Midlands capital and manufactures products for the mining, farming and construction industries.

Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation (ZMF), which represents the interests of small-scale mining activities, attributed the increased gold output to improved mineral processing technology by their members. Small scale miners are projected to produce at least 12 tonnes of the white metal this year.

As part of efforts to see continued improvement in gold production in the country, the Government has come up with a funding package of about $50 million supported by Sakunda Energy.

The Government is also pursuing other funding mechanisms under the China XCMG loan facility and the South Korean loan facility.

@lavuzigara1