President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is set to fund operationalisation of three Gold Centres at Makaha in Mashonaland East Province, Mukaradzi in Mashonaland Central Province and Penhalonga in Manicaland Province.
Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa confirmed the development during a post cabinet briefing in Harare on Tuesday.
“Cabinet is pleased to announce that government has released funds for the operationalisation of three Gold Centres at Makaha in Mashonaland East Province, Mukaradzi in Mashonaland Central Province and Penhalonga in Manicaland Province.
“This will go a long way in ensuring that that gold produced by artisanal miners is efficiently mobilized thus increasing revenues accruing to Government as part of the process towards the attainment of a US$12 billion mining industry by 2023,” she said.
A gold service centre is a one stop shop that offers technical services to miners, access to a milling centre, access to capital and a ready market for produced gold by small-scale miners to Fidelity Gold.
A controversial gold dealer who was recently mentioned in the Al Jazeera “Gold Mafia” documentary, Scott Sakupwanya’s gold-rich Redwing Mine is located in Penhalonga.
The setting up of gold centres in Penhalonga will definitely benefit Sakupwanya, an ally of Mnangagwa’s family.
Nehanda Radio, in January, exposed Sakupwanya’s mining company, Better Brands, of employing unsafe mining practices at Redwing Mine in Penhalonga which are resulting in miners dying every week.
Despite, Redwing Mine having been hailed by the Metallon Corporation for playing a major role in economic stabilisation and domestic resource mobilisation over the years, producing 1.1 million ounces of gold between 1966 and 2004, the mine was later on captured by by Zanu-PF elites with little know how of proper mineral extraction.
The elites who include Sakupwanya are backed by powerful politicians who equally know nothing about mining.
There is an environmental destruction unfolding at Penhalonga due to unsupervised mining.
In February this year, government launched a US$10million Gold Facility aimed at supporting artisanal and small-scale gold miners who produce 60 percent of the bullion as well as establishment of the gold service centres to support activities in the sub-sector.
The US$10 million gold facility was split into two parts made up of US$5 million for the Artisanal Gold and Small-scale Miners Fund (AGSMF) and another tranche of US$5 million targeted at the Gold Service Centres Recovery Facility.
The Centre for National Resource Governance (CNRG) recently wrote to the Ministry of Mines asking it to stop Better Brands’ illegal activities in Manicaland Province.
“An Environmental Impact Assessment was never done for the new model of mining introduced by Better Brands and subsequently no environmental management plan is in place to mitigate environmental damage,” read the letter.
“Better Brands entered into an unwritten production sharing agreement with sponsors and artisanal miners. Better Brands offers gold milling and buying services to the sponsors and artisanal miners. In turn, the sponsors and artisanal miners get paid an amount equivalent to 40% of the gold they produce.
“Some unprocessed sands accumulated from milling are transported to Midlandsfor leaching and the gold recovered is not declared to Redwing Mine. The model of mining employed by Better Brands is against responsible mining tenets in the whole gold mining supply chain.
“The environmental destruction unfolding in Penhalonga is now beyond redemption. Artisanal mining is not supervised by experienced mining engineers and other technical experts.”
