(TALKZIMBABWE) Zanu-PF says foreigners plundering Zimbabwe's mineral resources

Zanu-PF says foreigners plundering Zimbabwe's mineral resources
By: TC
Posted: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 10:33 am

THE Zanu-PF party's Secretary for Information and Publicity, Rugare Gumbo, has bemoaned what he termed the continued plundering of the country’s mineral resources by foreign companies that were exporting ores.

In an interview yesterday, Gumbo said the country should reconsider the operations of some of the foreign companies that were mining minerals such as chrome and platinum and exporting the ores as such an arrangement was not benefiting the country.

He was making reference to increased chrome mining activities in Shurugwi, Zvishavane and Lalapanzi near Mvuma.

Gumbo said it was disturbing to note that most of the chrome being mined was being exported in its raw form thereby bringing very little to the country in terms of revenue.

The two ferro-chrome producing companies in the Midlands, Zimbabwe Allows in Gweru and Zimasco in Kwekwe, are not operating at full throttle, hence very little chrome is being processed at the moment.

“As a party, we are very concerned that most of these mining companies are just interested in exploiting the minerals and exporting them in their raw form thereby bringing very little to the country in terms of revenue.

“We want investors that are interested in setting up processing plants for these minerals so that as a country we get real value for our natural resources,” he said.

Gumbo said if the minerals were processed in the country, the arrangement will not only boost revenue but will also create jobs for the locals who would be employed directly by these companies or downstream industries.

He said Zimbabwe, especially the Midlands Province, was endowed with minerals that included chrome, gold, iron, platinum, diamonds, emeralds and nickel, among others, but had nothing to show for it because the bulk of these minerals were being exported in their raw form.

The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should come up with a policy that compels companies interested in exploiting the country’s mineral resources to invest in the processing of the same minerals as opposed to exporting them in their raw form, he added.

“The party’s position is that if we continue to issue these foreign companies with temporary permits to exploit and export our minerals in their raw form we will soon run out of these minerals, having benefited nothing.”

Gumbo said the present generation had an obligation to pass on their God-given riches to future generations but at the rate the minerals were being exploited, there might be no minerals to talk about in a few years time.

The Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Gift Chimanikire, announced recently that the ministry was in the process of drafting a Bill that seeks to regulate the activities of mines in the country.

Deputy Minister Chimanikire said under the proposed law, apart from directly improving the country’s economy, mines were supposed to directly contribute to the development of the areas where they exploit minerals.