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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter

FIDELITY Printers and Refiners plans to establish a gold fund to support the extraction of the mineral in addition to processing to help miners achieve the 100 tonne target by 2023.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, through its arm, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, has over the years been supporting small-scale miners operations through funds such as the Gold Development Initiative Fund, which is tilted towards processing of the ore.

RBZ established a $150 million Gold Development Initiative Fund in 2016 and this has since been increased to $200 million.

Addressing a small-scale miners’ conference in Bulawayo on Friday, Fidelity Printers and Refiners general manager, Mr Fradreck Kunaka, said: “Our fund at the moment has basically been skewed towards processing the ore after extraction and that is also reflected in the repayment period of three years, which I think you will all agree with me that it’s too short a period, if you are going to do exploration.

“So, it’s an area that we will also focus on to ensure that we improve on that, which will also result in us having to review the repayment period so that people can have funding for exploration and that will also enhance output.” 

In terms of mineral processing, Mr Kunaka said, at present there was an over-subscription in that sub-sector resulting in most of the custom mills dotted across the country being under-utilised in terms of ore availability.

“So, it’s an area that we need to work more in terms of funding for the actual extraction of the minerals rather than focusing on once the ore is on the ground. This will help in terms of moving towards the 100 tonnes of gold by 2023,” said Mr Kunaka.

“We are in 2019 and we are only left with four years and in those four years, we are still talking of 40 tonnes by year end. And when I look on the ground we don’t see much, I think we talked a lot in terms of what we want to do and we now need to be able to set timelines.”

He said timelines should be set and be used to monitor progress towards the attainment of the 100 tonnes by 2023. Mr Kunaka challenged small-scale miners to pay back their loans and be sincere in their operations for the good of the economy.

“The character not to repay the loans is one aspect that has not been good for the fund and for those that have benefited from the fund, there is a need for a high degree of integrity by using the loans for what they are meant for,” he said. — @okazunga