Gold heist: FPR, Minerals, Flora/Fauna Unit and CIO officers fingered
- Officers connive with small scale miners to under declare total gold output grammage
- 80% gold sold to black market
- Small scale miners shun FPR low payment of $45/gram
- Black market buyers paying between $55-$60/gram
- Whistle-blowers urge Zacc to conduct lifestyle audit on officers
FIDELITY Printers and Refinery (FPR), Minerals, Flora and Fauna unit and officers from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) have been fingered in a massive gold heist where they are allegedly conniving with small scale miners to under-declare their gold output, the ZimMorningPost can report.
FPR is the country’s sole buyer of gold and silver, and its recent statistics show that deliveries have been declining with the January 2020 figures showing a decline of 27,6 tonnes from 33,2 tonnes a year earlier.
According to FPR, small scale miners produced the bulk of the metal, accounting for about 63% of output or 17,4 tonnes against big producers, which delivered 10,1 tonnes.
Investigations carried out by this publication revealed that FPR launched a gold mobilisation exercise on 16 December 2019 which ran up to the end of May 2020.
The mandate of the mobilisation team was to enforce compliance on the small scale miners so that they declare their gold output, mobilise so that miners sell their gold to FPR as well as to make sure that all necessary paperwork is followed to the letter.
“The officers comprised of a team of six officers and each province had one team. It means there were 10 teams throughout the country. Government had to hire vehicles so that they can use during the operation,” said the source.
“Instead of carrying out their duty, the officers began to connive with the miners and corruptly charged them so that they under declare the gold outputs.
“Suppose a mine produced one kilogram a month, the officers would be paid so that the miners can declare far less than was produced and the rest of the gold would be sold to the black market,” the source said.
“FPR pays US$45 per gram of gold with a quality of 90% and if the quality is low then the price goes down to around US$40. The black market pays US$55 from a quality of 70% and the price increases as the quality increases.
“FPR takes four to six weeks to pay the miners while it is cash and carry for the black market buyers.
“This is why miners are shunning FPR and would rather bribe the officers so that the gold is not sold via formal processes.”
At one of the mines visited by the Zim Morning Post crew undercover,only 200 grams were declared on the material day when the mine had produced 800 grams of gold.
This meant the mine was paid US$9000 by FPR while the remaining 600 grams fetched US$33 000 from the black market.
If money paid to officers is factored in, the miner still made a huge profit while government was being prejudiced.
This investigation comes at a time when the United Nations has reported that Zimbabwe’s gold exports to the United Arab Emirates shot up by 71,9% in 2018 alone.
The UN report revealed that the UAE is now the biggest importer of Zimbabwe’s gold.
According to this report in 2014 UAE imported 0,94%, 2015 (1,75%), 2016 (5,29%), 2017 (25,51%) and in 2018 the imports shot to 71,94% (US$821 million which is close to ZWL$1,4 billion).
However, a recent Reuters analysis report shows that billions of dollars’ worth of gold is being smuggled out of Africa every year through the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East- a gateway to markets in Europe, The US and beyond.
According to the report the UAE imported $15,1 billion worth of gold from Africa in 2016, more than any other country and up from $1,3 billion in 2006. The total weight was 446 tonnes, in varying degrees of purity- up from 67 tonnes in 2006.
The report states that much of the gold was not recorded in the exports of Africa states with Zimbabwe included.
FPR acknowledged that there were murmurs of massive gold leakages, but no official complaint has been brought to them.
“We have heard reports of gold being sold to the parallel market for a long time now and we have been trying to curb this malpractisce together with other relevant authorities to no avail.
“To date we have not received any reports from the miners or from the Police about some of our staff getting kickbacks in the field. As Fidelity Printers and Refiners we do not tolerate such and if you could avail us with more information, we will certainly look into that,” said the company’s general manager Fradreck Kunaka.
Meanwhile, the development is tantamount to economic sabotage at a time when government introduced “use it or lose it” regulations, where mining title holders are expected to declare produce in sync with the potential of the title.
Government expects to produce over four tonnes per year by 2023, a projection which is being scuttled by economic saboteurs working in cahoots with top authorities in the industry.
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