HARARE – State-owned mining entity, Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) has introduced a mine-to-market internet system to allow transparency and traceability for its gold resource at a time the country is reeling from gold leakages.

The system, first of its kind in Zimbabwe, was set up in 2021 by Comstack, a United Kingdom-based company making KMH one of the first entities to align itself with international regulatory standards in Africa.

KMH CEO, Trevor Barnard says the system is being utilised at KMH’s gold mines, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine and Jena and Shamva Mine.

“From our perspective, it’s very important that our gold production is traceable from mine to market and that is to ensure that people have confidence in our legitimacy and to understand that our gold that we produce is actually gold we have mined, gold we have processed and gold we then sell to the market so that people have confidence.

“So, the system that we use was developed by a company called Comstack.

“We were actually the first company to implement the Comstack system within Zimbabwe, for the Zimbabwean market and one of the first five to actually implement it within the African continent.

“It is really a system that gives us transparency and accountability. It enhances our gold traceability system from the mine to market.”

Barnard said they introduced the system in order to meet regulatory compliance.

“It’s important that we comply with regulations not only within Zimbabwe but internationally.

“Remember this gold is sold in the international markets, our customers are international traders and it is critically important for them to understand and have confidence in our systems and the way we produce gold and market the gold.

“We also wanted to make sure that we are transparent about it so that anybody who buys gold that comes from Kuvimba could actually then understand where this gold is produced from.”

The business executive said they also did this for quality control so as to get the right mineral in the market, mining sustainably.

The system also monitors mining efficiency so that gold is mined efficiently and sustainably.

“It gives us a competitive product,” he said.

Comstack Africa Head of operations Garikai Mutandwa said conflict minerals have been an issue and laws have been passed across for compliance but there was a need for enhancing traceability to counter money laundering and leakages.