Zimbabwe gold deliveries at 26 tonnes in first 10 months

HARARE, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Gold deliveries to Zimbabwe's Fidelity Gold Refinery, the country's sole gold buyer, stood at 26.2 tonnes between January and October this year, Mines and Mining Development Minister Zhemu Soda said Monday.

This is against a set target of 40 tonnes for the whole year, the minister said, adding that deliveries by small-scale gold miners decreased to 16.5 tonnes from 20.1 tonnes during the same period last year.

"The decreased gold production from small-scale miners, who are the major contributors of gold delivered to Fidelity Gold Refinery, is a result of poor mechanization in the artisanal small-scale miners sector and lack of geological reports to assess the resources within mining locations," the minister said, adding that access to capital is also a major challenge to most small-scale miners because they have limited assets to use as collateral.

Gold is one of Zimbabwe's major foreign currency earners, alongside tobacco leaf and platinum. The country produced a record output of 35.38 tonnes of gold last year.