• BoZ has continued to purchase Gold from the market.
• It is currently buying gold from major mining companies.
• The Bank has now purchased 1, 400 kilograms of gold that comes to a value of about US$82.8 million.
Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has disclosed that it has so far purchased 1, 400 kilograms of Gold at a value of about US$82.8 million.
Bank Deputy Governor Operations, Dr. Francis Chipimo told Money FM News that the Central Bank has continued to purchase Gold from the market and it is currently buying the commodity from major mining companies.
Dr. Chipimo said the Bank was also initially purchasing some gold from Kasenseli gold mine, in Mwinilunga district before operations were halted, adding that it has now set up a mechanism by which it can purchase gold from the local economy.
“On the issue of Gold securitization and what other role other institutions can play I think from our perspective, what we have done is that we have continued to purchase Gold from the market. We have now purchased something like 1, 400 kilograms of gold and that comes to a value of about US$82.8 million. Obviously we are currently purchasing that from major mining companies but of course as you know we were initially also purchasing some gold from Kasenseli gold mine before they closed,” Dr. Chipimo said.
He further explained that the extent to which Bank of Zambia will extend gold purchasing to artisanal miners will depend on how quickly the new framework for organizing small scale miners takes place because gold needs to be purified to a certain level for it to be called Bullion gold and to count in the Bank’s reserves.
Dr. Chipimo stated that purified gold is easily tradable as it can easily be converted into United States dollars cash if the country has a crisis and needs to use the funds.
“Currently we are having gold purified through Rand Refinery and they do have their own standards for the gold that they receive. So for us it will really be to work with the government on the framework to get to a point where we have sufficiently organized the small scale miners so that they can provide gold, we can track where they are coming from, and then we are able to see whether we can have it refined and taken into our reserves.”
“So there is still a lot of work in that framework being set up and organized which has to take place before we come in as the buyer. At this point we don’t have any in-depth or security which we will be issuing the people to invest in that sense, we are not considering anything like that,” he added.
Bank of Zambia’s targeting to purchase US$100 million worth of gold by the end of 2022.
The Bank is currently undertaking two kinds of gold purchases with the first being gold bullion which is refined to the highest standard and Dore gold which is not yet refined.
