Mining is the backbone of the country’s economy, accounting for more than 60% of export earnings. However, there is a school of thought to the effect that the Mines and Mining Development ministry is not doing enough to turn the abundance of mineral resources into revenue. Masvingo businessman and miner Taguma Benjamin Mazarire (TBM) discussed different issues pertaining to mining with NewsDay (ND) reporter Thomas Chidamba. ND: What do you think should be done for the Mines and Mining Development ministry to operate efficiently? TBM: The ministry should consider embracing a computerised mining cadastre system to improve the ministry’s efficiency and reliability such as processing of applications for mining claims, monitoring progress on each mining claim and repossess idle mining concessions to trigger mining productivity. Besides, it eliminates the problem of double allocation of claims, thereby reducing conflicts among miners while giving miners more time to dedicate towards production. The government, through the Mines and Mining Development ministry should re-capitalise the mining Industry Loan Fund (MILF) to provide affordable loans to miners towards acquisition of equipment, establishment of water supplies and to enhance mining operations. The government should consider allocations towards enhancing sustainable cities and communities to increase the impact and contribution of mining activities in the country. ND: What measures should be taken to assist mining operations? TBM: Mining concessions should be allocated to registered entities with the capacity to immediately work on them. Those mining entities should be able to create employment and sell ores through regulated channels to enhance the country’s forex earnings. A number of gold rich fields are held for speculative purposes, depriving those with capacity to mobilise their productivity to mine on those fields. Failing to exploit mineral rich concessions is one of the impediments to achieving national goals. Through a computerised mining system, the Mines ministry should effectively come up with a performance benchmark to assess the impact of miners on the community in order to attain sustainable development. This kind of sustainable development should be in the form of industry and infrastructure innovation, community development, as well as strong institutions, and so on. The assessment will encourage miners to retain a share of mining proceeds to build strong institutions through buying mining equipment. Those who are investing in the future of the mining industry should receive first priority in the allocation of mining claims, so that they reimburse the capital expenditure incurred and spearhead mining productivity. Through increased productivity, the government will definitely achieve the US$12 billion industry by 2023 as part of the contribution towards the achievement of the middle income status by 2030. Many miners operate with poor transport and market access, they suffer geographical marginalisation which makes them less able to access informat