GOVERNMENT will soon establish a computerised mining cadaster to enable it to properly monitor and manage the local mining industry, Mines and Mining Development minister, Walter Chidhakwa has said.
BY MUSA DUBE
A cadaster is an official register showing details of ownership, boundaries, and value of real property in a district, made for taxation purposes.
Chidhakwa said plans to set up the computerised mining cadaster had been on the cards for more than a decade.
“A successful mining industry is one that is supported by computerised Management Information System [MIS]. Such an MIS will facilitate appropriate planning, coordination, communication, control and decision making in the ministry’s efforts to manage the country’s mineral resources,” Chidhakwa told a strategic plan review workshop in Bulawayo last week.
He added: “In that context, the ministry is establishing a computerised mining cadaster for the management of the entire mining industry throughout the value chain, that is from licensing, actual projects implementation and marketing, including accounting of production by all mining and mineral entities.”
The country’s mining sector has grown by an astonishing 35% in the period 2009 to 2011 with the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product increasing from 4% to 16,9%.
Chidhakwa also said strategies for the local value addition of the country’s minerals such as gold, chrome, diamonds, platinum group metals, copper, iron, and lithium must be put in place.
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The mining sector has overtaken the agricultural sector as the mainstay of economic growth, and now accounts for more than 50% of foreign exchange inflows into the country.
Analysts say on the basis of current costs and policies, gross revenues and fiscal revenues from the sector are seen increasing by 63 and 87% by 2018, respectively, to US$4,8 billion and US$729 million.
Chidhakwa said the system would replace the current paper- based method. He said the system was a modern trend implemented in many countries across the globe.
“Such a system will result in the modernisation of the mining title management system in line with regional and international best practices to provide for a faster and more efficient system which also offers security of tenure to investors,” he said.
MAXIMISE VALUE EDITION: CHIDHAKWA
Mines and Mining Development minister, Walter Chidhakwa reiterated the need for the country to maximise benefits from its resources through value addition.
“Mining is a viable option for industrialisation and economic development, provided the right strategies are pursued for the sector,” he said.
“In order to maximise the developmental impact on mining, the ministry must foster economic inter-dependencies between mining and the rest of the economy, especially through maximising value addition. Local value addition also facilitates infrastructural development and employment creation in Zimbabwe.”
