Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Zimbabwe mineral production declines

Zimbabwe mineral production declines
Posted by By Professor Tshuma at 29 March, at 14 : 22 PM

…Hiking of mining fees cited as the main cause

MINERAL production in Zimbabwe has heavily slumped, raising speculation that the sector will fail to supplement its earnings to the national budget as said by the Treasury.

Presenting his 2012 National Budget last year, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the country has budgeted US$3. 4 billion with the additional US$600 thousand expected from the mining sector, mainly focusing on diamond sales.

The mineral production figures from The Chamber of Mines show that several minerals recorded a slump from January to February this year.

Out of 35 recorded minerals, only three minerals managed to rise their production with others even failing to record anything.

Chrome production rose from 37 tonnes in January 2012 to 43 tonnes in February this year, raking in US$4,808,778 and US$4,956, 547 in January and February respectively, scraping a total of US$9,765,325 this year alone.

Another mineral that performed better is Iron Pyrite which produced 297 tonnes in January and jumped to 857 tonnes in February, raking in a total of US$176,656 this year.

Lastly in the better performing minerals was High Carbon Ferrochrome which produced slightly above 10 thousand tonnes in January and rose to 14,000 tonnes in February, attracting a total of US$25,572,142 for two months only.

Disappointing performer was the gold sector which registered an initial 1,150. 70 kilogrammes in January but went on to slump to 1 081.8 kilogrammes in February, a move analysts feel was caused by a rise in the gold buying licence by 100 percent by Government from US$2,500 to US$5,000.

Copper performed very badly also and managed to record 602 tonnes in January and sprawled 42.78 tonnes in February to 559.37 tonnes in February, attracting US$6,904,942 in the last two months.

Nickel, palladium, platinum and rhodium slumped heavily and the fall has been linked to the mining fees as alluded before.

The recorded mineral production have in total attracted a total of US$151 436 275 in January and fell to US$148 406327 in February, raking in a total of US$299,842,602.

The Chamber of Mines has however projected annual production of several minerals according to their contribution for the two months.

Chrome is projected to register 484,344 tonnes this year, copper 6,969 tonnes, gold 13,395 kilogrammes and nickel 8,256 tonnes if the production behaviour continues unchanged.

A minerals economist Mr. Elliot Peresi said the fall in the production levels was highly caused by the hiking of mining laws which mainly affected the small scale miners who contribute much to the production levels.

He said several miners could not register as miners this year, adding that the scenario has caused them to mine illegally, resulting in their production not to be recorded formally.

“Well, the slump in the production is mainly attributed to the hiking of mining laws by Government which affected the small scale miners who are the majority subscribers to the chamber,” he said.

However, we still feel that it will be good if they manage to register and mine as formal miners so that the country moves forward.

Asbestos has mainly been out of production since last year as the giant asbestos miner, Shabanie and Mashaba Mines (SMM) lying in the Great Dyke southern parts of the country stopped production after failure to pay its employees and other enablers such as electricity and water.

However, diamond figures could not be found as they are kept at the Ministry of Mines. The responsible authorities were not available at the time of going to print.

Labels: MINING, TENDAI BITI

posted by MrK @ 8:52 AM