Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, a subsidiary of Landela Investments has been licenced to buy gold direct from small scale miners and artisanal miners operating within its 60 000 hectares claims across the country.
According sources, Fidelity Refiners and Printers gave Freda Rebecca the greelight to purchase gold as a way of ensuring that the yellow metal from the company’s claims is accounted for.
Freda Rebecca has gold claims spreading over 60000 hectares concentrated in Manicaland and Mashonaland provinces.
According to the licence and agreement between Freda Rebecca Gold Mine and Fidelity Refiners and Printers gleaned by this publication, Freda Rebecca will buy gold at the same price that is offered by Fidelity of US$ 45 000 per kilogram.
“On the back of this agreement, Freda Rebecca Holdings has entered into a smart partnership with CBZ Bank which will see specific banking halls being converted into specialised gold buying and handling centres. The bank’s extensive branch network has been utilised to ensure the gold buying centres are located as close to the miners as possible,” said the source.
Speaking on the sidelines of an inspection of the recently completed pilot buying centre in harare, Landela Holdings official who refused to be named said the group had noted that artisanal miners were being shortchanged by unscrupulous middlemen in the industry hence the new arrangement.
“Reports have been rife on gold leakages while unscrupulous gold buyers were undervaluing proceeds from small scale miners and they have been cited as the ones fueling smuggling of the yellow metal depriving the country of the much needed foreign exchange revenue. It is envisaged that this initiative will enable government to account for more gold and ultimately plug gold leakages. The initiative is also an empowerment of small scale miners who have been facing a number of challenges ranging from lack of equipment to unavailability of cheap funding,” he said.
Under the new arrangement, artisanal miners would be paid their full amount for gold delivered in USD within CZB banking halls.
“CBZ Bank has already committed to creating products tailored for miners to enable them access loans for capital expenditure as well as working capital. CBZ Bank will also offer investment advisory services to the small scale miners.Landela Investmemts will offer technical support, equipment and financial support to small scale miners as a way of boosting their operations which will be recovered through gold sales,” said another source within Landela Investments.
Freda Rebecca has set in motion a process to re-register holders of tributaries on its mining claims to ensure that all activities are legalised.
“This exercise will see the stopping of custom milling which is happening on its claims since they may fail to channel their gold through formal system. It will also go a long way in ensuring that gold leakages are plucked out.
The aim is to buy 500kgs of gold monthly from artisanal miners and tributary holders while the overall vision is to attain 1 tonne monthly over the next three years,” said a source within Freda Rebecca.
A member of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation who attended the inspection of the pilot facility at one of the CBZ branches expressed her support for the project.
“The giant gold miner must spread its project to other parts of the country or other big mining firms should emulate this gesture to ensure that it covers other areas such as Midlands and Matebeleland provinces among other gold rich areas
as this initiative is expected to increase government’s gold receipts considering the level of transparency as gold from all Freda Rebecca’s claims will be accounted for,” she said.
