The government of Zimbabwe has begun cancelling gold mining licences owned by companies that are failing to utilise their claims.
This comes amid reports that a local mining company is sitting on 6 500 gold claims, which are underutilised.
The mining claims could be given to small-scale miners, NewsDay reported citing Mines deputy minister Polite Kambamura.
Addressing small-scale miners over the weekend during the launch of the Miners for Economic Development (ED) Mashonaland West chapter at Golden Valley in Kadoma, Kambamura said:
We have started cancelling EPOs (exclusive prospecting orders) and we started with Matabeleland North where we have cancelled many. We are yet to come here in Mashonaland West, but we will be going to all provinces. We have a company sitting on 6 500 gold claims. We will use the ‘use it or lose it’ principle as we have discovered that people with EPOs are not really doing anything, but they are holding the areas for selfish reasons. In future, we are going to cancel EPOs if those companies go for six months without providing exploration reports.
Kambamura refused to disclose the name of the company sitting on 6 500 claims.
In 2019, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said there were companies that had been holding on to mining claims for more than 100 years, thereby denying new players an opportunity to venture into the mining sector.
The mining sector is one of Zimbabwe’s major revenue generators.