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Formalising Zimbabwe’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector requires more than access to finance, with miners needing stronger financial management and reinvestment practices to turn funding into sustainable business growth, Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) Midlands Province Chairman Makumba Nyenje has said.
By Rudairo Mapuranga
Speaking at the planetGOLD Zimbabwe Annual Stakeholders Conference in Harare on Wednesday, Nyenje said miners could continue struggling to grow their operations despite receiving financial support if they failed to manage their earnings and reinvest in production.
He illustrated the challenge by pointing to the unpredictable nature of gold production and the risk of miners remaining financially stagnant when proceeds were not properly managed.
“A miner might get a kilogramme of gold today, but will they get another kilogramme tomorrow? If they don’t, you will find them in the same position when you come back to fund them,” Nyenje said.
He argued that access to capital must be accompanied by financial literacy, sound planning and the discipline to channel earnings back into mining operations.
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Nyenje said formalisation programmes should therefore place greater emphasis on helping miners understand how to allocate their income, meet operational needs and measure their financial performance over time.
He also called for small-scale mining operations to employ people with financial expertise, just as they engage engineers and other technical personnel to manage production.
“Just as we employ engineers and mine blasters for production, we also need people with financial expertise who can help us account for what we earn, what we reinvest and what remains as surplus,” he said.
Nyenje said proper accounting would enable miners to track their performance, determine whether their businesses were growing and make informed decisions about future investment.
His remarks add a financial management dimension to discussions at the two-day conference, which brings together artisanal and small-scale gold miners, government representatives and development partners to examine formalisation, financial inclusion and the adoption of mercury-free gold processing technologies.
The conference also features the launch of a publication examining pathways towards formalising Zimbabwe’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector.
The discussions highlight the need to combine financial support with the business skills and management systems required to help small-scale miners build sustainable operations and adopt safer mining and processing practices.