” The Office of Poofness “
This article will go from “Did You Know?” to “Do You Know?”
On April 5th, 2024 Zimbabwe announced its new gold backed currency, the ZIG. It is actually backed by various minerals, primarily gold. Zimbabwe has introduced and abandoned at least five currencies since its independence in 1980.
Zimbabwe’s gold production has gone from an all-time low of 3 tons in 2008 to a forecasted 40 tons in 2024. The Central Bank of Zimbabwe recently announced it has the equivalent of 2.5 tons of reserves. 1.1 tons in the vaults of the central bank, 1 ton held offshore and other minerals-diamonds and so forth , if converted to gold, would be equal to .4 tons.
Zimbabwe exports approx. just under five tons of gold per/year. 99% of which goes to the United Arab Emirates. According to African Mining Market.com , Zimbabwe has the second largest gold reserves, per square kilometer, in the world with an estimated 13 million tons of proven reserves. But have only pulled out around 600 tons. 90% of these reserves lie in what’s known as the “greenstone belts”. Greenstone belts are primarily formed of volcanic rocks, mostly basalt. ( basalt is a fine-grained granite made up of some hard stuff like Iron and magnesium). Which makes the geological environment not so favorable for the development of large scale gold deposits. The gold is there but it’s too hard to get it out.
The country has not carried out any meaningful exploration on gold deposits over the past ten years. Most all of the gold coming from Zimbabwe is artisan mining, meaning hand mined. They are literally decades behind in modern mining practices.
Now here is where it gets tricky and I cannot find the answer for. If Zimbabwe is producing at least over 30 tons of gold per/year, only exports under 5 tons per/year and only has around 2 tons in the central bank reserves, where is the rest of the gold? We’re talking about the reported gold that has been extracted, not the reputed 13 million tons in the ground.
Which is another question. How do they estimate the 13 million tons? They didn’t do bore holes every 50 feet. The estimate is strictly based on the tectonic activity where gold is usually found. But there is no actual geological data supporting that.
But back to the original question, “where is the gold they’ve taken out?) Where did it go? I have not been able to find it. Are they keeping it for a rainy day or what? Considering there is a major drought in Zimbabwe right now, I would say the rainy day is here, so to speak. And if all this gold is what is to support the GCR, it’s a need to know question.
DJ
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