Zimbabwe aims to be among top five gold producing countries

Zimbabwe is targeting to become one of the top five gold producing countries in Africa within the next three years, a Cabinet minister has said.

Zimbabwe's gold sector is slowly recovering after declining sharply in the last decade. Gold output reached an all-time low of three tonnes in 2008 having peaked at 29 tonnes in 1999. Last year, Zimbabwe's gold output reached 14 tonnes, while this year's target is 17 tonnes, the New Ziana reported.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Government would implement various strategies to boost gold output. "Our intention is to reorganise the gold sector. We want to become one of the top five if not top four gold producing countries on the continent in the coming three years," he said.

"We are going to seek to decriminalise gold panners, recognise their operations, we will seek to capacitate them with machinery and I have been talking to people who could assist in that regard."

Minister Chinamasa said legalizing the operations of gold panners was crucial if the country was to realize a substantial increase in gold output.

He said Zimbabwe had over 20 000 gold panners whose output, if properly accounted for, would significantly increase the country's gold output. The Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe has said that gold production could reach 50 tonnes in the next five years.

However, this is dependent on the gold sector securing US$1 billion in fresh capital over the next five years, and the availability of reliable power supplies.