Zimbabwe government to reduce mining royalties

The Zimbabwe government plans to lower royalties from minerals sales in order to help resurrect its refinery, a subsidiary of the central bank, which lost its London Bullion Marketing Association license in 2008 when tonnage fell significantly.

“We will be reviewing royalties so that we can attract gold into our system and Fidelity can start working on gold for refining purposes,” Walter Chidakwa, Deputy Minister of State Enterprise and Parastatals, told The Source.

“On other minerals there is agreement on the concept of reducing royalties but we have not settled on the numbers. The final decision will be in the budget statement.”

The budget may be announced in January, according to Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa.

Last January the government set gold royalties at 7%, platinum at 10% and diamonds at 15%.