In a press statement, RioZim Limited says it opened its gold mines that had been closed due to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) failure to allocate enough foreign currency.
Three mines, Cam and Motor, Dalny and Renco mines had this year suspended operations for the second time due to no foreign currency to purchase raw materials.
“Further to the Board’s Press Statement published on the 8th of February 2019, RioZim Limited wishes to notify all of its stakeholders that the Company’s gold operations have resumed full production as normal, Corporate Affairs Executive Mr Gwatiringa said in a press release.
“This development follows the fruitful discussions held with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which facilitated the clearance of all arrear payments thus allowing the Company to resume its normal operations.”
On 08 February 2019, RioZim in its Press Statement announced the suspension of operations on the three gold mines. RioZim accused RBZ’s Fidelity Printers and Refiners (Private) Limited for failing to meet commitments made to gold producers.
“As part of the commitments made to gold producers in November 2018 to support their operations, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe undertook to allow all gold producers to maintain 55% of their export earnings in their foreign currency nostro accounts and to increase export incentives on all minerals,” read the statement signed by RioZim Management Services (Private) Limited, Per Z. Makorie said.
“As of date, the Company has experienced significant and persistent delays in payment of its foreign currency allocation for deliveries made to Fidelity Printers Refiners (Private) Limited since December 2018.”
This has severely affected the viability of the Company’s operations. Consequently, the Company recently was forced once again, to involuntarily suspend operations across all three of its gold mines. Due to pending full payments of its foreign exchange proceeds which it requires in order to procure the necessary consumables needed to keep the gold operations running,” the statement went on.
RioZim, last year suspended gold producing mines in October last year due to the same foreign currency challenges.
Besides the mining sector, Zimbabwe has witnessed manufacturing companies including Delta Beverages also failing to operate properly due to foreign currency shortages.
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