MINES and Mining Development ministry secretary Prince Mupazviriwo says his ministry is working on lifting the ban on chrome exports this month.
Report by Veneranda Langa
Mupazviriwo told members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy at a diamond mining workshop in Vumba last week that the current Mines and Minerals Act was going to be repealed in its entirety and a totally new Act crafted.
He added it was pointless to have a Diamond Act, but instead, an Act to cover all precious stones.
“It has been agreed that we need to review the current ban on chrome exports because that window was created on the basis of a need to ensure there is beneficiation,” Mupazviriwo said.
“If we value add, concentrate and smelt the chrome, we enhance its value and we get better value as a country and so we are looking at coming up with modalities to remove the ban.”
He told the committee that the chrome that used to be exported was 95% waste and 5% genuine mineral.
On the minerals development policy, Mupazviriwo said they had engaged a consultant who was already in the country working on it and should have it complete by May this year.
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Mupazviriwo said his ministry would buttress the Precious Stones Trade Act to enhance it in the areas of exploration, mining, transportation and storage of diamonds, valuation of diamonds, marketing, beneficiation, value addition, capacity building, as well as security and law enforcement aspects.
“The new Mines and Minerals Act will provide a user-friendly mining environment, enforce the ‘use it or lose it’ principle, present a more investment-focused legislation based on a win-win principle, allow issues of levies and taxes to be dealt with in regulations to reflect prudence in the application of mineral rents and also formalise small-scale mining operations,” he said.
Legislators were also told that the new Act would result in a new computerised mining cadastre system which will modernise mining title management systems with regional and international best practices, while also offering security of tenure to investors.
“It will eradicate multiple allocation of title to investors,” Mupazviriwo added.
