HARARE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) — Zimbabwe is on course to attain a mining sector growth target of a 12-billion-U.S.-dollar industry by year end, with the gold sector expected to play a major role towards the ambitious target, Minister of Energy and Power Development Soda Zhemu said on Monday.
According to the statistics last year, the mining industry had topped 9 billion dollars, Zhemu told a press conference on the sidelines of a gold mobilization deployment workshop held in the capital Harare.
“A baseline survey was conducted in 2017 where our mining industry was valued at around 2.9 billion (U.S. dollars) then, and over the years it has been growing,” Zhemu said.
“So I would safely say that we are on course towards the achievement of the 12 billion (U.S. dollar) mining industry, and the gold sector alone is expected to contribute about 4 billion towards this achievement,” he said.
Gold is Zimbabwe’s top mineral export, raking in 2.04 billion dollars from a record output of 35.38 tonnes in 2022, up from 1.8 billion dollars in 2021, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
The country is now aiming to curb under-declaration and plug leakages in the gold sector that have been prejudicing the Treasury over the past years.
