admin
Vusumuzi Dube Sunday News Reporter
A THRIVING black market of dangerous substances, mercury and cyanide, has emerged in the country despite the ban on the use of mercury and stringent controls of cyanide procurement with small-scale miners and the general public easily accessing the dangerous substances posing a danger to themselves and the environment, Sunday News can exclusively reveal.
Mercury use in gold processing is banned internationally while the Government has also tightened controls on the use of cyanide following the widely publicised cyanide poisoning incident which resulted in the death of over 100 elephants at the Hwange National Park.
An investigation by Sunday News last week revealed that the two dangerous substances could easily be accessed by illegal miners from backyard mining supplies shops in the city.
At one such shop, located behind the Bulawayo Public Library, the shop owner even boasted that he services miners from the length and breadth of the country.
“I meet a lot of people here from right across the country, be it Kwekwe, Esigodini or even Chegutu; they all come here to get their mercury, cyanide or any mining requirements,” said the shop owner.
Our news crew, purporting to be illegal gold miners, managed to purchase the mercury, with three millimetres or three soft drink bottle tops going for $10. The shop owner advised that their stock of cyanide had run out and promised that when they restock he would call.
“We will have to get more cyanide from the industries because right now it has since run out, but please leave your mobile numbers and we will definitely call you when we restock,” said the owner.
Early this year 140 countries, including Zimbabwe, signed The Minamata Convention — a United Nations pact designed to limit mercury use and emissions internationally.
The pact bans the use of mercury in gold processing, coal-fired plants, boilers and smelters, lightbulbs, primary mining for mercury, dental fillings, vaccines, mercury-containing batteries, switches and relays containing mercury, soaps and cosmetics containing more than one part per million of mercury and medical and monitoring devices including barometers, thermometers, hygrometers, manometers and blood pressure monitors.
The agreement was mooted as part of a global fight against pollution.
The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) on the other hand stepped up enforcement efforts to ensure that all miners using or are in possession of the chemical compound have a valid licence, with those found without facing possible arrest.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Cde Walter Chidakwa said the control of the two chemicals was critical, noting that the mercury convention was mainly to protect the miners considering the dangers mercury had on the miners themselves.
“The idea is that mercury is not only dangerous to the environment but poses a danger to the miners themselves as it causes blindness among other side-effects. Therefore, the miners should seriously look at the advantages rather than focusing on the down side.
“It is unfortunate that we are still trying to identify a possible substitute to mercury in gold processing but I am aware discussions are in earnest and very soon a possible substitute will be identified,” said Cde Chidakwa.
He warned miners abusing both mercury and cyanide that this remained illegal and eventually the law would catch up with them.
Zimbabwe Artisanal and Small Scale for Sustainable Mining Council president Mr Wellington Takavarasha confirmed that the country was in a crisis in terms of regulating both mercury and cyanide.
Both chemicals are used by miners to recover or trap gold.
He said with regards to mercury, the major crisis was that the ban had been abrupt and no known cheap substitute had been identified, leaving miners with no choice but to smuggle the chemical into the country.
“As we are speaking right now we just emerged from a meeting with the World Bank where we are saying there is a need for some alternative for mercury or this cyanide; the umbrella ban, in particular on mercury, was too abrupt as it came at a time when the only other substitute is concentrate, which costs over $40 000.
“This cost alone leaves small-scale miners with no choice but to resort to accessing mercury from unscrupulous individuals, thereby exposing themselves to various health hazards associated with mercury,” said Mr Takavarasha.
With regards to cyanide, he noted that while some miners could still be abusing cyanide, the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) was particular about the handling of the dangerous chemical with the agency giving a special licence and further being particular about vehicles used to transport the chemical.
EMA spokesperson Mr Steady Kangata confirmed that mercury was particularly giving them a headache, with numerous cases where the chemical was being fingered as the cause of environmental degradation.
Although he could not give particular cases off hand, the EMA spokesperson said mercury usually accumulates in rivers, this contaminating aqua life which then goes on to affect humans, who eat the affected fish.
“The problem with mercury is that it is a heavy metal and it usually accumulates within the ecosystem, contaminating the rivers and dams where these miners pan from. Further, the aqua life also becomes contaminated and it is these people who go on to eat these already poisoned fish thereby causing untold sufferings and worse still death, that is why when we are testing rivers for mercury contamination. We test the fish first.
“It is unfortunate that the Minamata Convention is still in its implementation phases but one thing that we won’t run away from is that mercury is dangerous to both the miners themselves and the environment. I agree we have to urgently come up with a means of stopping its illegal use,” said Mr Kangata.
Government recently dispatched a taskforce to investigate whether 11 000 households in Umguza were at risk due to the discharge of raw sewage into rivers by Bulawayo City Council.
Local Government, Public Works and National Housing minister Ignatius Chombo said Government would assist the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to close errant companies that fail to curb pollution.
He said it was established that service stations, premises of transport operators, garages and car repair workshops were discharging oil, grease and silt into the environment thereby polluting underground water.
“Such pollutants also end up in the sewer reticulation system, causing corrosion and consequently pipe leakages and bursts,” he said.
“Tanneries discharge heavy and poisonous metals such as arsenic, chlorium, sodium chloride, organic solids, dyes and paints. These metals are harmful to human, animal and aquatic life when discharged directly into the environment.”
Other companies mentioned as polluting water and the environment were funeral parlours, abattoirs, food outlets, beverage producers, chemical producing companies and local authorities.
Online Reporter