According to CCTV Africa, Zimbabwe’s mining sector has taken a major hit which has contributed to a slump in growth projections. The entire sector was believed to expand by 10.2 percent, but is now estimated to hit a disappointing -1.9 percent.

In addition, tax laws and international pricing have pushed deliveries in the gold sector to decline by 26 percent within the first-half of 2014, the video report noted. Now, the government is answering calls to address gold sector revenue models by cutting down royalty percentages.

“The existing mines may well carry on with slightly higher levels of profitability,” economist John Robertson told CCTV Africa. “Many of them found these royalties were very high because this is a royalty worked out from the total value of gold produced.”