Government has not banned small scale mining: Dr Kambamura

Wallace Ruzvidzo
Herald Reporter
Government has not banned small-scale mining activities but has urged miners to exercise caution during this rain season, Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Dr Polite Kambamura has said.
This comes after misguided reports by some media outlets that the Deputy Minister had called for a ban on small-scale mining activities.

In an exclusive interview today, Dr Kambamura allayed fears that Government had banned small-scale mining activities.

The Deputy Minister said he was only advising small-scale miners to suspend their operations as a cautionary measure.

This was after a mining shaft in Makaha, Mudzi, collapsed last week, resulting in three small-scale miners getting trapped.
“We did not ban underground mining, we value the contributions coming from the small-scale sector, especially the gold sub-sector, but above all life is sacred. We value the lives of people and therefore safety will be a priority.

“So underground mining is not banned, we do not have any plans to ban small-scale underground mining but what we are saying is if there are bad weather conditions, our miners should consider safety,” he said.

“I issued a comment on the matter (Makaha incident) advising small-scale miners to consider suspending going underground considering the dangers posed by incessant rains and the weak ground conditions that can lead to mine flooding and the ground collapsing.

“On 13 February 2019, we had a similar case at Battlefields in Kadoma where small-scale miners were flooded by rain and we lost 24 miners. So as a cautionary statement, we advised small-scale miners not to go underground when it is raining and resume when weather conditions improve,” he said.