By William MacNamara in London
Published: March 29 2009 20:39 | Last updated: March 29 2009 20:39
Zimbabwe’s gold trade could be reviving, making gold the first industrial sector to benefit from recent economic reforms in the country.
Mwana Africa, a mining group listed on London’s Aim market, plans to reopen the Freda Rebecca gold mine, one of Zimbabwe’s largest, by September.
It has been closed for the past three years, a period that was “impossible” for gold producers, one sector analyst said, as the central bank bought gold but failed to pay producers in either foreign currency or increasingly worthless Zimbabwean dollars.
Today’s buoyant gold price, above $900 an ounce, was an important factor in the decision to reopen the Freda Rebecca mine, said Kalaa Mpinga, Mwana chief executive.
More important, however, was a series of economic reforms starting with the “dollarisation” of the economy – or substitution of foreign currency as a medium of exchange – sanctioned by the central bank in January, he said.
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