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Mr Dosman Mangisi

Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) in conjunction with the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) have embarked on an outreach programme aimed at curtailing rampant leakages of the country’s semi-precious minerals.

ZMF spokesperson, Mr Dosman Mangisi, said most rural communities where semi-precious stones are found were unaware of their value hence they tend to lose out from generating meaningful revenue from them by selling these at very low prices to some unscrupulous dealers.

“We have embarked on a drive to promote the importance of semi-precious minerals to rural communities, which they may not be aware in conjunction with MMCZ. We are also looking at improving the literacy on these minerals as well as issues of value addition.

“Most miners or collectors of these semi-precious minerals, since most of them are just picked in the fields especially in the North and South Dyke, are losing out from realising value from them. One is made to sell a cup of a certain mineral for as little as $150 with the buyer standing to realise more than $10 000 from the same cup,” said Mr Mangisi.

He said the country was losing millions of dollars in potential revenue through well-orchestrated international trafficking syndicates smuggling semi-precious minerals mostly in rural areas.

“We are working together with MMCZ to stop the leakage of these semi-precious minerals as we have realised that all the focus seems to be on diamonds and gold while semi-precious minerals is one silent sub-sector of minerals, which has over the years been overlooked yet it can contribute immensely to the fiscus,” said Mr Mangisi.

Investigations reveal that some Chinese, Mozambican and Democratic Republic of the Congo nationals are at the centre of the illicit trade.

It is estimated that Zimbabwe has about 36 semi-precious minerals that include agate, methyst, alexandrite, aquamarine, heliodor, goshenite, chrysoberyl, iolite and tourmaline.

Agate is one of the semi-precious stones being carted out. It is largely unheralded in Zimbabwe, but enjoys a fairly hungry market in other countries, especially China. There are abundant deposits in numerous parts of the country. It is used to make ornaments such as pins, brooches and other types of jewellery, paper knives, inkstands and seals.

“As a country we should work on creating a database of the semi-precious minerals we have and also work on creating a gemstone industry because in other countries such as China and neighbouring Mozambique this is a big industry, which has created employment and the same can be done here because the resources are in abundance,” said Mr Mangisi.