BY  THOMAS CHIDAMBA Artisanal and small-scale miners are said to contribute more than 60% of gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners.  However, many of them remain informal. It is said that more than 1,5 million artisanal miners are not registered. Last year, the small-scale mining sector was troubled by a rowdy group of machete-wielding criminals known as MaShurugwi, who robbed several miners of their gold. Most analysts in the mining sector said machete violence in the artisanal mining sector would affect government’s US$12 billion mining vision by 2023. In this interview, NewsDay (ND) reporter Thomas Chidamba speaks to Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) chief executive Wellington Takavarasha (WT) about issues affecting the mining sector. ND: What are the main challenges that small-scale miners are facing in Zimbabwe? WT: There are a number of issues that are faced by small-scale miners which include lack of finance and lack of human capital. When talking of human capital, we are talking about lack of expertise in terms of qualified workers like geologists, metallurgists, mine engineers and surveyors so that mining is not done speculatively, but is done in terms of imperial evidence to find out if the mine has resources. People normally believe in superstition kuti takarota apa pane goridhe (we dreamt that there is gold here) and yet mining needs geological surveys. Other challenges include that small-scale miners have not been getting much financial support from government. But other sectors like agriculture, unlike mining have got a lot of government incentives.  So, we want government to incentivize small-scale miners. Despite small-scale miners contributing more than 60% (of gold to Fidelity Printers and Refiners) we still have not seen government doing enough to incentivise their operations. ND: As a federation, what measurers have you put in place to mitigate such challenges?  WT: As ZMF, we have been lobbying for funding and also financing of small-scale miners which is palatable to their operations where they do not need collateral.  We want their mining activities to be taken as collateral.  The federation is making efforts to ensure that people are given money and more importantly, to ensure that government benefits from small-scale mining activities.  For this to happen there is need to formalise small-scale miners’ operations. ND: At one time small-scale miners were said to be contributing more than 60% of deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners but it has since dropped. What could be the reason? WT:  This is due to challenges to do with Fidelity Printers and Refiners’ shortage of cash to pay miners.  The fact that small-scale miners are not getting paid cash promptly three days after delivery of gold might have also contributed to the drop in deliveries. Now the situation has improved. A comparison of prices offered by Fidelity, which is the sole gold buyer and is government owned, and those in the parallel market, one would find that the parallel market does not have any charges but Fidel