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New rich gold deposits were recently discovered by artisanal miners in Nyanga. Mines commissioner for Manicaland Province Mr Agripa Chimusasa said in an interview last week that the discovery of new deposits would play a significant role in the growth of the country’s annual gold production. “There have been discoveries recently, further north of the province in the Matizi and Gairezi areas in Nyanga,” he said.
The area, Mr Chimusasa said, is still under-explored but is believed to have a rich vein of gold judging from findings by those who are using rudimentary methods.
Mr Chimusasa said that the province’s rivers were known to be host to a variety of minerals especially gold.
“Recent exploration and illegal mining activities by artisanal miners have led to discovery of new mineral belts in the province. The continued discovery of mineral deposits through unprofessional means has led Government to inject capital towards setting up an exploration company that would quantify the amount of mineral reserves that the country has,” he said.
Recently, more alluvial and placer deposits of diamond and gold were found in Marange and Chimanimani.
Further down the province of Manicaland, in the Ndowoyo communal lands in Chipinge, huge deposits of copper and molybdenum were also discovered.
Mr Chimusasa urged companies exploring in these newly discovered mineral deposits to observe environmental laws in order to reduce damage to the environment.
“The situation in Manicaland is even compounded by the fact that most mining is taking place in or near environmentally sensitive areas such as plantations and rivers.
“Companies should not start projects without Environmental Impact Assessment approval from the Environmental Management Agency, especially big projects,” he said.
Russian company, DTZ-OZGEO has been mining alluvial gold in Penhalonga with capacity to produce up to 20kg per month.
However, the mine was shut down by the Environmental Management Agency on grounds the company had failed to meet environmental standards last month.
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