Chrome producers cry foul

Business
Small-scale chrome producers say they require at least $100 million to capitalise their operations and have appealed to the government to avail facilities similar to those offered to gold miners.

By Thomas Mupfuka

Small-scale chrome producers say they require at least $100 million to capitalise their operations and have appealed to the government to avail facilities similar to those offered to gold miners.

Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) CEO Wellington Takavarasha, told Standardbusiness that chrome producers felt neglected by the government.

Takavarasha said his federation was pushing for a meeting with the government to address the problems facing the miners.

“As a federation, we are not fully capacitated,” he said. “Gold miners have been receiving immense support from government, and it is our intention that we engage government on funding issues.

“We want to capacitate chrome mining so that there is also value addition. “Smelting is critical towards improving the pricing.

“As miners, we will be having a meeting with relevant authorities. We require at least $100 million for capacitation.”

Takavarasha said chrome producers were struggling to import requisite inputs due to acute foreign currency shortages in the country.

The producers are also struggling to access credit lines from commercial banks amid low prices set by the Minerals Marketing Authority of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).

MMCZ fixed local chrome sales at US$80 and US$90 per tonne, which is below international standards of US$100 and US$120.

This has created a lot of side selling of chrome to smugglers who offer high prices.

MMCZ general manager Tongai Muzenda said miners were failing to get attractive prices locally due to poor quality of their chrome.

“The issue of pricing is related to the quality of the chrome that is being produced,” he said. “We understand there has been limited funding for small-scale miners and we will support their move to advocate for more funding.”

In 2016 the government introduced the Gold Development Initiative Fund (GDIF) to help support small-scale chrome miners.

Over $150 million has so far been disbursed to miners, and recently, GDIF head Mathew Chidavaenzi said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was working towards releasing another tranche of $100 million.

Last week, the government unveiled an ambitious plan, which seeks to grow Zimbabwe’s minerals exports to US$12 billion by 2023.

The plan is hinged on increasing chrome production from last year’s 369 000 tonnes to 1 169 551 tonnes in 2023, on the back of increased output from major producers such as ZimAlloys, Jinan and AfroChine.

The production growth is also expected to feed into steel production and exports of high carbon ferrochrome.