By Tambaoga Gora
The Mining Industry has generated 3.4 billion United States Dollars in last 10 months of the year despite challenges stemming out of the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Mine managers under the Association of Mine Managers of Zimbabwe banner are meeting in Kariba for their 49th annual general conference.
Addressing delegates, the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines representative, Mr Paddington Tsuro gave an overview of the mining industry, highlighting that the sector is contributing immensely to the foreign currency requirements of the country.
“We have received some good reports from the monetary authorities, they are giving us numbers of what the industry has generated from exports from the first 10 months of the year, 3.4 billion is not a small number it bigger than what the country generated in a full year in 2020, we are seeing mineral exports heating an all-time peak of about 4.5 billion by end of year,” he said.
Guest of Honour at the conference, Zimbabwe Gas and Coal Mine Director, Mr Linos Masimura, challenged mining managers to start their own mining projects taking advantage of their expertise they were using to successfully manage internationally owned entities and boost the country’s revenue generation.
“We need to go and show meaningful success of corporates coming from Zimbabwe going in the region, there is very few companies that have been started in Zimbabwe by Zimbabweans, which are running mining in Zimbabwe but we have got companies that have been started elsewhere running being run successfully by Zimbabwean mine managers in Zimbabwe, so my challenge to you is you find that transition from being an employee to an employer first employing yourself and then employ other,” said Masimura.
Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe -Occupational Health and Safety Executive Dr Abednego Chigwada spoke on the country’s target of achieving a 12 billion United States Dollar Mining Industry by 2023.
“Technological advancements need to be stepped a gear up in order for us to be able to meet our national requirements in terms of contributing to the national agenda, a very difficult space to operate is when Zim 1 declares globally that I have able people and resources to attain the 12 billion mark in the land and if we don’t do anything to buttress those words we have failed ourselves not our leader but ourselves. There is great potential within the industry to meet the 12 billion united states dollar industry by 2023, I must admit that the target is very tight in terms of time frames there is a lot of footwork that the industry needs to do, I am happy to announce that with the opening up and easing of the COVID- 19 restrictions there is a lot of activities in the industry,” he highlighted.
Some of the pertinent issues which came under the spotlight include a glaring skills gap stemming from advancements in technology.
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