Govt to undertake Eastern Highlands minerals aeromagnetic survey

year, Government through the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development suspended a tender for the aeromagnetic survey following observations that the tender documents had been tampered with.
The survey will take place in March.
Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Gift Chimanikire said after suspending the aeromagnetic survey tender, the Govern-ment resolved to undertake the exercise on its own.
“The aeromagnetic survey tender was cancelled due to some misdemeanours’ elements. Last year, we resolved that through our 25 percent mining retention allowance we could carry out the exercise on our own using our manpower and resources and we can only hire helicopters,” he said in a telephone interview from Harare.
In 2011, Government indicated plans to embark on an aeromagnetic survey in the Eastern Highlands after a similar exercise by a Canadian firm in 1980 was not extensively done.
It is suspected that there are a number of minerals in the eastern part of the country that are yet to be identified.
A few years ago, alluvial diamond deposits were found in Chiadzwa, Manicaland Province.
“We should begin the aeromagnetic survey, particularly in the Eastern Highlands, by March this year.
“When the last aeromagnetic survey was done in that part of the country, it was not extensively undertaken because of a civil war in Mozambique that ravaged that part of Zimbabwe,” said Deputy Minister Chimanikire.
He said geologists and mining engineers from his ministry were already working on the implementation plan for the survey.
An aeromagnetic survey is a common type of geophysical survey carried out using a magnetometer aboard or towed behind an aircraft.
The aircraft flies in a grid-like pattern with height and line spacing determining the resolution of the data and cost of the survey per unit area.
Mr Chimanikire also said exploration work in different parts of the country by the Zimbabwe Mineral Exploration Corporation was expected to begin during this first quarter.
Exploration activities are meant to enable the Government to be acquainted with the country’s mineral base so that the resources could be fully exploited for economic development.
Zimbabwe is endowed with minerals such as gold, platinum, chrome, phosphates, lithium and emeralds.