Zimbabwe Parliament says illicit mineral leaks could plunge the country into turmoil

4.0 Committee Observations 

It is difficult to penetrate the security systems at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in the absence of insider threats, that is, without the planned involvement of rogue elements among the employees;

• There is suspicion of massive under declaration of gold produce at elution plants. The absence of Fidelity Gold Refiners and State security agencies such as the Flora and Fauna Unit of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, compromises the security of minerals at processing or cyanidation points;
• Fidelity Gold Refiners lacks visibility and is not always adequately capacitated financially and therefore has limited competitive advantage over the other players in the gold buying field in terms of the price they offer and reliability on payment. Its absence in places occupied by artisanal miners provides room for illegal dealers to buy gold which is then smuggled out of the country;
• The country’s porous borderline remains a major cause for concern. It provides easy pathways for mineral leakages, particularly gold and diamonds, which can easily be smuggled out through undesignated exit points.
• Unregistered milling plants in areas crowded by artisanal miners are a source of gold leakages. Urgent action by government is required to register all the milling plants;
• The absence of a platinum refinery plant in the country remains a major cause for concern and it has the potential of creating leakages considering that processing of platinum (and the other ten minerals) is done in Rustenburg in South Africa in the absence of security personnel from Zimbabwe. There is a possibility of understating of the actual statistics and value of minerals after processing in foreign environments;
• Massive exploitation of minerals, coupled with lack of substantial community development and economic empowerment programmes for local mining communities, is a major source of disgruntlement which quite often degenerates into anarchy;  
• There is limited or no sense of ownership of minerals by local mining communities due to a sheer feeling of insecurity, hopelessness and lack of meaningful, robust and sustainable corporate social responsibility projects that guarantee continuity after the depletion of the minerals. In the process, the communities would display an ‘I don’t care’ attitude on curbing mineral leakages because they feel that these minerals are not benefiting them directly;    
• Mineral leakages were being exacerbated by a plethora of factors, chief among them being the absence of a stringent legal framework in the mining industry, delay in regularising and integrating artisanal diamond and gold miners into the mainstream economy, weak enforcement mechanisms and alleged laxity by some members of law enforcement agencies;
• The country has the capacity to curb mineral leakages, because the chief perpetrators are citizens, starting with those at grassroots level, up to those holding positions of influence in the country;
• It’s beneficial for Government to move with speed to plug mineral leakages from smuggling through enhancing traceability mechanisms in line with international best practice such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines on Due Diligence for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains;
• Illegal mining and illicit trade in minerals are a cause for concern which have the potential of being a security threat as has happened in West Africa and in neighbouring Mozambique;
• There is a knowledge gap in the public domain on the significance of securing minerals and cultivation of a true sense of ownership of mineral resources as means of curbing leakages;
• There is an outcry from mining communities, especially in diamond mining areas, about state security engaging in acts of corruption and thereby fuelling illegal mining and trading of precious minerals.

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