Gold output lowest in 90 years

By Tichaona Sibanda
23 May 2007

Gold production in the country has plunged to its lowest since 1916, the Chamber of Mines announced on Tuesday.

Jack Murehwa head of the chamber, an umbrella group for the country’s private and state mining operations, said Zimbabwe was also the only mineral producing country in the world that failed to benefit from high global metal and minerals prices.

Murehwa said in a report that the mining industry continues to experience declines in volumes despite the very buoyant mineral prices, which prevailed for the past 18 months. Joel Gabhuza, the MDC MP for Binga and who is also the party’ secretary for mines, energy and environment, blamed the government for the crisis.

‘In a nutshell government’s poor management policies, coupled with poor mining policies within the industry itself, have got us where we are today. Government’s attempts to nationalise the mining sector has also backfired spectacularly and this will have long lasting repercussions for the mining industry,’ Gabuza said.

According to reports in the year to March, the country produced eight tons of gold. In 1916, at the height of the colonial-era gold boom in southern Africa, the former British colony mined 29 tons of gold. Murehwa said the world price for gold rose from about Z$275 per ounce in 2001 to more than Z$600 per ounce last year. Nickel, platinum and copper prices also soared.

‘What excuse can our industry give for not benefiting from this worldwide boom in metal prices?’ The answer Gabuza said, lay in what he called ‘policy inconsistencies’ in the economy that led to hyperinflation, acute shortages of petrol and hard currency for equipment and spare parts, regular power outages and an exodus of skilled mining personnel to better paid jobs in other countries.

The country is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, blamed largely on corruption, mismanagement and disruptions in the agriculture-based economy when Robert Mugabe ordered the often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms in 2000.