A CURRENCY crunch and the first effects of the latest round of power cuts made their presence felt in Zimbabwe’s mining sector in the first quarter of this year, said Reuters which cited the comments of Isaac Kwesu, CEO of the country’s Chamber of Mines.
“Preliminary figures indicate that the first quarter was not a good performing period for our mining industry as most key minerals recorded some negative growth,” said Kwesu. Mining generates most of the export earnings for the southern African nation, which faces a severe shortage of dollars that has led to a scarcity of fuel and medicines, said Reuters.
More recently, the country was affected by load-shedding, or rolling blackouts, as a result of falling dam levels.
Kariba Power Station, which is already operating at half capacity, will reduce generation further to 358 MW from 542 MW, said Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) earlier in May. Zimbabwe’s power system was already under pressure owing to its ageing fleet of power stations.
Generation at Hwange, Zimbabwe’s biggest coal-fired station, as well as three smaller plants remained fragile due to the age of the facilities.
Gold deliveries to central bank unit Fidelity Printers and Refiners, which buys all the country’s gold, declined to 6.5 tonnes from 7.3 tonnes during the January-March quarter.
However, Reuters said the currency shortages could improve. Kwesu said he expected mining production to improve as mining firms receive their dollars quicker and get more in local currency as the RTGS dollar continues to weaken.
