HARARE (Commodity Online) : Mineral rich, but impoverished Zimbabwe produced 661.8 kg gold in March with small scale miners contributing 17% to the country's total production.

According to country's Chamber of Mines, the March figure is a marked increase compared to the previous month's figure of 487.7 kg´s.

The mining body attributed the increase to continued investment into the sector by the various producers of the precious metal.

Production for March is the highest monthly production recorded for the year to date. This is attributed to continuous investment in rebuilding production capacities. This investment is from revenues generated from production it said in a statement.

The chamber however said the sector continued to face operational challenges such as the failure of banks to provide long term loans to the mining houses and continued powered outages.

Mining companies are unable to access long-term capital to speed up the rehabilitation of current mines and for exploration and development,

The Chamber said it was targeting a production figure of 7000-8000kgs for the year.It said it was targeting a production figure of 7000-8000kgs for the year.

Zimbabwe Gold