Zimbabwe has asked gold miners across the country to ramp up output to support the ZiG currency launched last month, according to Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando.

“This new currency is anchored on gold production, we have to determine ways to increase production,” Chitando said Monday in a meeting with miners in the capital, Harare.

Zimbabwe has been accumulating gold reserves at the central bank’s vaults to back the ZiG, short for Zimbabwe Gold. The ZiG is backed by 2.5 t of gold and $100-million. It’s the nation’s sixth attempt to have a functioning local currency in 15 years.

Since late 2022 miners have been ordered to pay a part of their royalties to the state partly in commodity and cash, to help increase reserves.

To help boost production, the government will encourage artisanal and small-scale miners to produce more gold with medium- and large-scale miners, Chitando said. “At this stage, production from medium- to large-scale miners for the first quarter was higher from the same period last year,” said Chitando.

The southern African nation — which is endowed with vast mineral resources including platinum, lithium and diamonds — targets gold production this year of 40 t up from 30.1 t last year.