Shamiso Dzingire, Business reporter
INSTALLATION of processing equipment at the $ 5 million Bubi Gold Service Center at Matabeleland North is near completion and the project is expected to provide 1 600 jobs for the local community.
In 2016, the small miners' representative body, the Zimbabwe Miners & # 39; Federation (ZMF), a partner from South Africa merged, Gold Genius set up the service center at Queens Mine that Vice President Constantino Chiwenga officially launched last month has stated.
In an interview with Business Chronicle last week, the founder of the Bubi Small-Scale Miners & # 39; Association (BSSMA), Mr. Ishmael Kaguru, said that the service center would create 1 600 jobs for the Bubi community and boost give to the gold output, while the country focuses on 100 tons of the year metal over the next five years.
"So far we have installed six hammer mills and the best is to install wet ponds, which we think will be implemented in the coming weeks, as we wait for the supplier to deliver the remaining equipment before the center is fully operational," he said. said.
BSSMA is an affiliated company of the ZMF.
Mr. Kaguru said that Bubi small-scale miners were enthusiastic about the completion of the service center.
There are more than 300 small-scale miners in the Bubi district.
In 2015, the first gold service center was established under the government project in Peace Mine in Silobela.
Through the golden service centers, the government looks forward to establishments in gold mining regions in the entire country. Small-scale miners benefit from their sand for the first time, in contrast to what happened with the use of postage stamps.
BSSMA, Chairman Mr. Sqeduthando Ncube said that the project will see that their members initially own 40 percent of the project and that the loan is paid in full.
Small-scale miners have made the largest contribution to gold production in the country.
In the first seven months of the year small-scale miners delivered 13.5 tonnes of the total 21 tonnes produced in the country, while large-scale miners contributed 7.3 tonnes.
This means that small-scale miners have contributed 64.9 percent of the gold to the sole gold buyer of Zimbabwe, Fidelity Printers and Refiners.
In recent years, Zimbabwe has experienced a sharp increase in gold output as the Central Bank has rolled out a Gold Development Initiative Fund.
The central bank of Zimbabwe has this year raised the gold support facility to $ 150 million from $ 80 million in 2017, after realizing the fund's impact on boosting the output of the mineral.
As of December last year, $ 60 million was spent on small-scale miners, while $ 20 million was bought by large-scale miners.
@ShamisoDzingire
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