International price – US$150/tonne
The Zimbabwe Mining and Steel Company (ZIMASCO) is reportedly taking advantage of its monopoly as the sole smelter of chrome ore in the country to fleece small scale producers of the mineral, it has emerged.
ZIMASCO has been buying chrome ore from local miners at a paltry price of US$60 per tonne, in striking contrast to the international market price of US$150 per tonne.
This comes after the government banned the exportation of chrome ore in April this year to promote value addition. ZIMASCO has since taken advantage of this monopoly.
Instead of the meeting the objectives of the ban, ZIMASCO is failing to meet the demand, since only one of its eight smelters is working. This has disadvantaged local small scale miners of 25 000 tonnes of unutilized chrome ore due to low smelting capacity in the country.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) chief executive officer, Wellington Takavarasha said, “ZIMASCO is producing about 50 000 tonnes of the mineral and is battling to smelt it, which leaves small miners stranded with their own product.”
The government has refuted calls to revise the chrome export ban.
Post published in: Business