Economy on a recovery path – Chitando

By Business Editor

Mines and Mining Development Minister, Winston Chitando said the economy was on a recovery path with the mining sector expected to contribute massively to the reclamation process.

Minister Chitando said this in contrary to an economic report given by Africa Economic Development Strategies in collaboration with the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) on Thursday. The report painted a gloomy picture of the economy.

Minister Chitando said proceeds from coal are projected to jump from US$2.7 billion in 2018 to over US$12 billion in 2020. He said that Zimbabwe would be a net exporter of electricity following an additional 2 000megawatts that would be generated from coal by various players that were coming on board.

He also underlined that by the end of 2019, his ministry would have finished setting up of four gold centres in places with high activity of small to medium scale gold miners.

He added that the gold centres would be furnished with the necessary technology and manpower which would improve recovery rate on gold to about 85%.

Zimbabwe is losing about $180 million annually through smuggling. The problem, is however, not peculiar to Zimbabwe as sub-Saharan Africa loses about US$100 billion worth of adjusted net savings annually through massive looting and smuggling of minerals.