The government of Zimbabwe has raised the mining and license fees from between 500 to 5000% as per the state controlled local media.

Diamond claim registration has gone from USD 1 million to USD 5 million. Application fees for coal investors have gone up from USD 5000 to USD 100,000. The application fees for platinum have seen the largest hike going up from USD 200 to USD 500,000.

What’s more if the application for platinum mining is successful the licence fee has gone up from USD 500 to USD 2.5 million. Zimbabwe is known to have the second largest reserves of platinum in the world after its neighbor South Africa.

Just how many miners will be willing to take on the new mining fee structure is debatable. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Miners have expressed their concerns over these mining fee hikes in a letter saying that the fee increments were ridiculous and unsustainable and they will force miners out of business.

The letter also asks for suspension and withdrawal of the new fees until they discuss and come up with a sustainable structure. In the meantime they would like to revert to the old fees, which they already consider to be high.

In stark comparison a coal exploration permit in Queensland, Australia costs merely USD 1030 and other minerals need a permit that costs just USD 772. The decision to raise the mining fees as per the government officials was taken to curb the speculation activities in the mining sector in the country.

(Sourced from www.azomining.com)