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Oliver Kazunga Senior Reporter
KUVIMBA Mining House (KMH), through one of its subsidiaries, Sandawana Mines in Mberengwa District, has pledged commitment to foster rapid development in the district following the re-opening of the mine in January this year.
Sandawana, whose history dates back to 1955 as an emerald operation, has changed ownership over the years and is being resuscitated as a lithium and tantalite mine by KMH that took over the asset in 2019.
Prior to acquisition by KMH, the mine was defunct since 2010 when production was suspended due to working capital constraints and a reduction in emerald resource.
KMH, a sprawling mining and investing holding company with interests in gold, lithium, platinum, nickel, and chrome, has injected capital amounting to US$56 million towards revamping and transforming Sandawana Mines into a world class high grade lithium operation.
Speaking during a stakeholder engagement in Zvishavane yesterday, KMH chief executive officer Mr Simba Chinyemba said they will continue rolling out developmental projects as part of the mine’s corporate social responsibility initiatives and contribution to economic development through uplifting the living standards of ordinary people.
This is dovetails with the Government’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) whose aspiration is to drive the country towards an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
Some of the developmental programmes that KMH, through Sandawana Mines, is executing or intends to roll out include upgrading the existing Sandawana Mines Clinic to a hospital, relocating Sandawana Primary School that is presently located at the mine to a designated site as well as rehabilitating the road network in the district.
“We have a visiting medical doctor that we have identified for the clinic currently, before we upgrade it to a hospital. We have spoken earlier about all the health initiatives we are going to do,” said Mr Chinyemba.
“Part of our objectives as Kuvimba Mining House is to do zero harm and the other one is to develop our human capital and that requires us to have a healthy workforce and a healthy community— all those basic things we are going to do them.
“We are going to buy an ambulance and it will be stationed there. If we buy an ambulance and we fix the roads, it will reduce the amount of time someone gets from a potential injury to the hospital significantly.”
In the next one year or two, said Mr Chinyemba said other community development projects Sandawana would undertake include partnering with Agritex for livestock production.
The stakeholder engagement was attended by 15 chiefs from Mberengwa who represented communities in the district.
The traditional leaders were led by Senator Chief Ngungumbane, who sits in the Chiefs Council, and is chairperson of the Midlands Provincial Assembly.
Some of the traditional leaders that attended are Chief Mahlebadza, Chief Bvute, Chief Mposi, Chief Maziofa, Chief Chingoma, Chief Mapiravana, and Chief Mudavanhu.
Said Mr Chinyemba: “We have also talked about the quota for local employment; this one I think it’s not a promise of what we are going to do because already you can see that is what we are doing.
“So we can acknowledge, at least that we will continue to do exactly that. Let’s encourage the schoolchildren in the district to become engineers and nurses because as long as there are qualified engineers from the area, they will be employed by us because they are local.”
He said KMH will put in place a scholarship specifically for students from Mberengwa district for mining-related studies.
Early this month, KMH availed the inaugural five students they are sponsoring for Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Zimbabwe under the ED-UNZA Scholarship Trust.
“We are going to add five more to that and we are going to start by Sandawana specifically from the district,” said Mr Chinyemba.
The ED-UNZA Scholarship Trust, whose founder and patron is President Mnangagwa, was established in November 2019.
Its first intake started university in January 2021.
It was at the fund raising dinner in 2021 hosted by the Patron, President Mnangagwa, when Mr Chinyemba decided to join the ED-UNZA Scholarship Trust.
Mr Chinyemba said because his organisation acknowledges the role played by traditional leaders in preserving cultural norms and values in their jurisdictions, KMH will also build courtyards for chiefs in Mberengwa.
“I have already talked about the community share ownership plans. We are doing this because we want to make sure we are as close as possible to the community and we understand the valuable role chiefs have in their communities,” he said.
Presently, Sandawana employs about 1 500 people, including those hired by contractors.
The mine is rich in other minerals including copper and gold.
Going forward, the mine is expected to increase its workforce to over 3 000.
In previous engagements with KMH, the chiefs noted that since the mining group was a Zimbabwean entity, and despite the Government repealing the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, the company should prioritise empowering villagers by awarding them syndicated lithium tributaries.
At yesterday’s event, Senator Chief Ngungumbane commended the progress Sandawana Mines has made in transforming Mberengwa communities.
“You started your mining operations early this year but you have made tremendous progress in as far as development is concerned.
“We are really excited as traditional leadership in the district for the plan to upgrade the Sandawana Mines Clinic to a hospital,” he said.
Zanu PF legislator for Mberengwa North Constituency, Cde Tafanana Zhou, KMH management as well as representatives from various Government departments also attended the stakeholder engagement.
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