Dorcas Rumano and Tendai Matunhu

The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development says it will be stern on the implementation of the ‘Use it or lose it’ principle to ensure that people are productive on the mining claims offered to them.

The ministry says Government will recover unutilised mining locations through opening ground to serious investors who will not hold the mining titles for speculative purposes.

The ‘Use it or lose it’ principle is expected to contribute significantly towards attaining milestones set out in the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), which seeks to put the economy on a recovery path through enhanced mineral exploration, opening of new mines, re-opening of closed mines, increased capacity utilisation, mining expansion programmes, local beneficiation and value addition, which leads to inclusive growth of all sectors of the economy.

The ‘Use it or lose it’ principle will also address the issue of high cost of geological surveys which are believed to be too expensive for small scale miners. Enforcement of the ‘Use it or lose it’ principle is in line with the TSP as it minimises leakages in the mining industry.

In an interview with the Harare Post, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Onesimo Moyo said there was need for professionals to turn around the mining industry so as to boost the economic growth.

“The expertise of professionals is needed to transform the mining industry to achieve the desired level of economic growth. The mining sector has set its target to generate annual revenue of more than $12billion by the year 2023. In this regard, the professionals are expected to play a key role towards attaining that target by putting their knowledge and technical expertise into practice,” he said.