HARARE – Gold deliveries to Zimbabwe’s sole buyer and exporter, Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR), fell 5 percent to 2,734kg in May, compared to 2,876kg in the comparable period last year, according to official data released Thursday.
The May deliveries are however up from 2,387kg in April.
Of the total deliveries, small producers who deliver the most gold sold 1,678kg in May, lower than 1,806kg last May but 38 percent more than the 1,218kg delivered in April.
Large-scale miners delivered 1,056kg, lower than 1,070kg in May last year and 9.6 percent down from 1,168kg in April this year.
Last month, mines minister Winston Chitando called for investigations into the decline of deliveries from small-scale miners, whose deliveries were at that time ranging between 42 percent and 53 percent lower compared to previous years.
Since 2020, small-scale miners have been contributing more than 60 percent of gold to Fidelity, surpassing large-scale producers.
Zimbabwe expects to produce 40 tonnes this year, up from 30 tonnes in 2023.
But despite firming gold prices globally, miners are facing rising production costs at home.
According to the government, gold worth at least US$1.2 billion is illegally exported from Zimbabwe annually.
