Zimbabwe’s principal gold buyer, Fidelity Printers & Refiners, says the gold delivered to its mills in the last ten months amounts to 11.11 t, exceeding the 10 t required for readmis- sion to the London Bullion Market Asso- ciation (LBMA) for the first time in six years.
In an update circulated to the media last week, Fidelity, a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe subsidiary, says large-scale miners had delivered 8.3 t, while small-scale miners delivered 2.7 t.
Fidelity has already notified the LBMA that Zimbabwe, which was deregistered in 2008, when yearly gold production plunged to below 2 t, intends to apply for readmission to the world’s prestigious gold-buying club.
According to figures from the company, large-scale gold producers have been delivering a monthly average of 827 kg, while deliveries from small-scale miners have averaged 54 kg/m since the beginning of the year.
Metallon Gold’s How mine, near Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, delivered 2.4 t, Mwana Africa’s Freda Rebecca mine delivered 1.5 t, Caledonia’s Blanket mine 1.1 t, RioZim 537 kg, Forbes & Thompson Mines 328 kg and Falcon Gold’s Lulu mine delivered 252 kg.
Addressing a press conference in Harare earlier this month, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa said gold deliveries to Fidelity
Printers had increased from an average of 200 kg to 400 kg a month.
He said, judging by the gold deliveries made so far, the country was on course to achieve the revised annual gold production target of 13 t this year.