Zimbabwe confident of returning onto the London Bullion market

By SARAH NCUBE
Published: July 28, 2009
ZIMBABWE – HARARE – Zimbabwe is confident of returning onto the London Bullion market within the next twelve months.
The country’s sole gold buyer at the time, Fidelity Printers and Refineries was de-listed from the London Bullion Market last year following numerous problems that affected gold production.
Chamber of Mines president, Victor Gapare, said the production of gold has been on a steady incresae since the deregulation of economy and the introduction of a raft of measures to spur economic activity.
“As far as trading on the London Bullion Market is concerned it’s an issue of producing 10 tonnes a year and there is need for us to show consistence for two years. At the moment gold production is picking up and since the beginning of the year to the month ending June one tonne has been delivered and if this trend continues within another year we will be exceeding 10 tonnes,” Gapare said.
The London Bullion market is a wholesale market for the trading of gold and silver. Trading is conducted among members of the LBMA, loosely overseen by the Bank of England.
Most of the members are major international banks or bullion dealers and refiners. Five members of the LBMA meet twice daily to “fix” the gold price in a process known as the London Gold Fixing.
The country’s bullion production nose-dived from 10 960 kilogrammes in 2006 to 3 072kg last year – a massive 40 percent drop in two years.
The main requirements to be considered for listing are normally that a refiner must have an established track record of at least three years of producing the refined metal for which the listing is being sought.
Gapare said the political dispensation in the country was favourable for production.
“For a start the de-regularisation of gold mining arrangement and also the political risk has been on the decrease as well, all this argues well for us to lure investors,” he said.
Gapare said mining stakeholders have been in talks with the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) about the rampant load shedding which immensely impact negatively on production.
“Power plays an important part in any mining activity and it will be one of the major factors to determine investment. We do know that electricity problems are affecting the entire region but we are grateful that ZESA has since found some partners and hopefully the situation will improve,” he said.- The Zimbabwe Telegraph