Young miners target international investors
By Ndanatsiwa Tagwireyi
The Young Miners Foundation (YMF) will soon meet a group of potential investors in South Africa amid indications that a group of prospecting investors is willing to partner with young miners in various areas including structured funds, access to equipment and working capital, the Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer Payne Farai Kupfuwa has said.
This development has come following the Mining, Engineering and Transport (Mine Entra) expo where young miners exhibited under a one stop stand which encompassed peggers, environmental impact assessors, engineers, steel players, protective clothing suppliers among others.
“We were also showcasing the progress that we are doing for young miners, the Rupemba Gold Processing Plant in Zvishavane’s Mazvihwa area, the upcoming Young Miners Academy, and other projects that we are also earmarking all around the country in terms of lithium,” YMF CEO said.
According to Kupfuwa, the investors in South Africa and other players in the mining value chain liked the young miners dream which is to create 21st century young mineral magnets as a stimulus to other productive enterprises and how young people are advancing and upscaling entrepreneurial participation in mining enterprise development and commercialization.
“We are preparing to meet a group of potential investors who are willing to partner with YMF to create a structured fund, the Young Miners Revolving fund or to create a deal for access of equipment and working capital for the young miners’ projects,” Kupfuwa told the Mining Vision Magazine. We will be in South Africa for almost a week and half, having meetings in Sandton, Cape Town and Johannesburg.”
Upon successful deliberations, the investors are expected to create alternative financing models that will aid in exploration, extraction and mineral processing carried out by young miners in Zimbabwe.
“We will be discussing along the lines of creating a smelting plant, gold processing plants and how we can value add the processed minerals into products such as jewellery,” Kupfuwa told the Mining Vision Magazine citing that: “We will also be discussing on how best we can engage in exploration, one of the challenges that we have as young miners is lack of resources for meaningful exploration.”
In May 2022, high level officials who attended the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town cited the need to invest in exploration to fully discover the vast resources in the African Continent.
“Our continent is endowed with vast mineral resources that largely remain undiscovered because we are not investing in exploration,” Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema noted.
Data from the United States Census Bureau indicate that Africa’s population is exceptionally young compared to other world regions that have been aging at a fast rate, only 5.6% of Africa’s population was age 60 or older in 2020. In Zimbabwe, more and more young people are getting involved in mining.
“We are also glad that the government has reserved some mines for the youths,” Kupfuwa holds.
“We will also be discussing areas on how we can access exploration equipment which actually depicts underground geology to see where we can sink shafts and do our profitable projects.”
