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Wellington Takavarasha

William Milasi
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) Chief Executive Officer, Wellington Takavarasha has said the regulatory framework of the proposed Mines and Minerals Bill stigmatises the operations of small scale miners and artisanal miners in the country.

Addressing artisanal and small-scale miners at the Mines and Minerals consultative meeting held in Kwekwe, Takavarasha said there is no correct legal framework on what defines a small-scale miner and an artisanal miner.

He said there are no laws which govern the operations of the miners.

“There must be a distinction between who is an artisanal miner and a small-scale miner. Miners are rejecting the Act because of the stigma attached to the sector. The bill must address the issue of formalising and regularising these miners.  Miners are calling for the decriminalisation of artisanal mining through the creation of an objective, transparent and inclusive mechanism,” Takavarasha said.

“The sidelining of artisanal and small-scale mining in both the 1963 Mining and Minerals Act and the current Mines and Minerals Bill is worrisome considering that we have about one million people employed under the sector.”

Takavarasha said terms and conditions of the mining development fund do not embrace small-scale miners.

“We don’t want people to remain informal, they remain informal because the operational environment is not sustainable. Tariffs are high and the terms and conditions of the mining development fund don’t qualify any small-scale miner.

“The finance sector is therefore finding it difficult to finance the operations of the small-scale miners because it is not fully regulated. This therefore hampers the needed funding of the sector,” he said.

There is potential for growth in the sector, he said, and if miners are to mobilise their own resources they have the capacity to form a bank.

There are more than 600,000 small-scale miners operating in Zimbabwe with combined figures of both registered and unregistered artisanal miners pegged at 700,000.  Whille the sector employs over a large number of people the situation is, however bad, said Takavarasha considering that many of them are not registered.

“This is a serious disparity which must be addressed. In Zimbabwe we need a medium scale mining enterprise mining development and this can be achieved if the sector is regulated,” he said.

Takavarasha said the sector can grow through mining policies which are sustainable and can create investors out of the indigenous people rather than relying on foreigners.

The ZMF boss said there is potential for growth in the sector considering that it is contributing a lot to gold output in the country.

Last year small scale miners produced 7 tonnes with big players producing 14 tonnes.