By STEPHEN CHADENGA Confederation of Zimbabwe Miners (CZM) president Rangani Chauke yesterday called on government to urgently se up a bank specifically for miners so that they can easily access the much-needed capital for their business operations. In an interview with NewsDay, Chauke said the bank would particularly empower artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) who account for more than 60% of gold deliverables to capitalise their businesses. ASM miners have failed to access loans from traditional banks because most of them are informal. “The mining bank will particularly help artisanal and small-scale miners to have access to loans, skills training in financial literacy and business management skills,” Chauke said. “We have traditional banks that ask for collateral from our miners to access funding; hence the issue of a mining bank is urgent. That bank would help address some of the challenges we face as miners.” He added: “The major problem we have is that few miners particularly ASMs own assets that can be used as collateral to secure a bank loan.” Follow NewsDay on Twitter @NewsDayZimbabwe
