admingold-rich area engaging in primitive mining activities that endanger the lives of hundreds of their employees.
Their activities have put Government’s empowerment programmes in the mining sector under spotlight.
A recent tour of the province by The Herald, showed that small-scale miners, with virtually no knowledge or experience in gold mining, have besieged a stretch of land between Gwanda and West Nicholson.
The miners have no equipment at all save for picks, buckets and shovels but they engage in underground mining.
So bad is the situation that at one of the mines, Sally 5 Mine (near Colleen Bawn), an employee was trapped recently after mine walls collapsed.
Danken Phiri (38) of Rusape was still buried underground two months after efforts by mine owner Mrs Evans Majola to retrieve his body failed.
“He was buried underground about two months ago. We tried to engage established mines in the province to help retrieve his body but we failed,” said Mrs Majola.
Despite the disaster, work continues uninterrupted at the mine, which has 30 workers.
Officials from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development based in Gwanda visited Sally 5 Mine soon after the incident, but did not order its closure.
“Danken Phiri’s parents came here from Rusape and they demanded three beasts (cows). I gave them US$600, which was enough to buy two beasts,” Mrs Majola said.
The situation at Sally 5 Mine that produces 2kg of gold every month, resembles the majority of small-scale mines in the area some of them owned by powerful politicians in the province and other parts of the country.
During the tour, The Herald also discovered that some bigger mines such as Tannahill were failing to provide proper accommodation for their employees.
Tannahill has 240 workers who live in pole and dagga huts.
The situation at Tannahill Mine resembles a squatter settlement with a single toilet for male employees and another one for their spouses.
Water is sourced from a communal tap posing a health hazard to the employees.
Tannahill general manager Mr Don Nicholson admitted the situation at the mine was bad but said they were making efforts to relocate their employees to West Nicholson.
“We are trying to move our employees to West Nicholson, which is 20km away. They started staying here in 2003. We do have our health issues like everywhere else,” he said.
According to Mr Nicholson, the mine produces about 5kg of gold a month, a figure challenged by his employees.
They claimed Tannahill produces 7kg every month, raising questions on whether authorities at the mines were not under-declaring the gold output.
Jessie Mine, which operates in the same area as Tannahill, produces 14kg of gold monthly according to its mine manager, Mr Gideon Ncube.
“We produce 14kg of gold in a good month and 10kg in a bad ones. This is a high grade mine, which produces 20-25 grammes of gold per tonne,” Mr Ncube said.
Government has placed an order for mining equipment worth US$600 000 from China to support the small-scale miners.
No comment could be obtained from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development in Gwanda.
Online Reporter