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Deputy Minister Fred Moyo

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Government has engaged local banks for $1,5 million to cover freight and insurance charges for small-scale mining equipment worth $5 million from China.

The basic mining machinery was secured in June by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development through a Chinese Development Bank loan facility.

In an interview yesterday, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Fred Moyo said the machinery that was initially expected in the country at the end of this month is now expected in October.

“The equipment hasn’t been shipped from China because we’re still finalising on the logistics. At the moment, the Government doesn’t have money to ship the equipment so we’ve engaged local banks through the Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe for $1,5 million to cover freight and insurance charges for the machinery.

“Once we get the money, we hope the machinery will be shipped in the next few weeks and by the end of October it would have arrived,” he said.

Deputy Minister Moyo said the Government has also engaged the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) for the establishment of a bonded warehouse for the machinery.

“We’ve also engaged Zimra for the setting up of a bonded warehouse for the machinery so that once the qualifying beneficiaries for the machinery have been selected, arrangements can then be made for them to pay for the duties and other taxes as they collect the machinery,” he said.

The bonded warehouse will be established in Harare before it is decentralised to other parts of the country.

Suppliers of the mining equipment, XCMG Group, specialise in mining trucks, motor graders, earthmovers, hoisting equipment and spare parts.

Over the years, the Government has recognised the critical role played by small-scale miners in economic development, and thus the plan to support them through mechanisation to improve their deliveries.

As part of a raft of measures to improve small-scale miners’ contribution to the fiscus, the Government has also decriminalised activities in the gold mining sector.