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Dumisani Nsingo Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe School of Mines (ZSM) has come up with an outreach programme aimed at imparting artisanal and small-scale miners with the requisite skills to enhance their mining expertise in a bid to improve mineral handling and production. In an interview recently, ZSM chief executive officer Mr Dzingirai Tusai said artisanal and small-scale miners have expressed satisfaction at the training courses, which the institute has been offering over the past three years.
In 2013 ZSM introduced training modules outside its formal training technologies comprising various fundamentals of mining specifically tailor-made for artisanal and small-scale miners which included geological surveying, mineral processing and administrative courses.
The institute has also introduced advanced fundamentals of a mining course which hinges on imparting skills on how to mine in areas with unstable ground, hard rock and high levels of underground water. It has also developed modules specifically designed to suit women in mining.
It also runs a mineral resource course for non-mining trained professionals.
“We started running those courses from the campus with a lot of practical field trips, now the new thrust is going to the small-scale miners, which is our outreach programme.
“What we will do is organise the artisanal and small-scale miners into clusters at various points. We have done break-even analysis and the school goes out there and trains them on the ground,” Mr Tusai said.
He said the outreach programme would be conducted through the institution’s Distance Learning Centre in conjunction with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Chamber of Mines, Zimbabwe Miners Federation, Women in Mining, Youth in Mining as well as other associations in the mining sector.
“We have actually produced a calendar for those activities but ZMF didn’t take it up on time. We expected them to take up it as soon as possible but of course anything, which starts usually experiences logistic problems.
“ZMF were the ones who should have spearheaded their membership and produced a database of their members detailing where their members are and forming those clusters and they are not yet ready with that,” Mr Tusai said.
However, he said there were areas with existing structures such as Shurugwi, Zvishavane and Gwanda further stating that the pilot project would be held at Collen Bawn in Gwanda and would focus on women in mining.
“We have an outreach team that is there, ready to implement that process. We expect the first group and it’s going to be of women in Gwanda that will be trained this September and will graduate the same month. Final logistics are actually being done for that area. Interestingly that group has looked for funds for themselves,” Mr Tusai said.
He said the programmes being offered by ZSM for artisanal and small-scale miners would improve the general standard of life for this particular grouping and spur mineral production in line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.
“They (artisanal and small-scale miners) are going to do proper extraction and get the proper value they should get. They will do the mining process properly and recover the correct levels of the mineral from their mining, they will do it safely, respecting the environment. We also have big mines that assist artisanal and small-scale miners around them in proper mining.”
ZMF information secretary, Mr Ishmael Kaguru said the programmes that have been lined-up by ZSM would result in improved safety mining methods and increased production.
Gold deliveries from small-scale miners to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s subsidiary, Fidelity Printers and Refinery, went up by 100 percent in the first quarter of the year.
“These programmes will go a long way in assisting us especially to improve our methods of shaft mining and we are likely to move away from the rudimental type of mining which most artisanal and small-scale miners engage in.
“Of course not forgetting the knowledge we will get with regards to safety and environmental issues. On the production front we will also improve because miners will be taught to use explosives and drill in the appropriate areas where they are likely to get better deposits,” he said.
Mr Kaguru said ZMF was in the process of compiling a database that would include groupings of artisanal and small-scale miners in their mining district as required by ZSM.
Mine and Mining Development Deputy Minister Fred Moyo said the programmes being carried out by ZSM were a major step towards formalising mining activities by artisanal miners.
“I have always said formalisation means legally empowering the artisanal miners in that they must be known by the law that they exist. We need to get them formalised in as far as capacity building in knowledge is concerned.
“We need to ensure that they are resourced materially, which means we must give them the tools in the form of money and equipment. That way we will improve on their efficiency and safety among communities and themselves, we need to train them so we have to get the school out of Bulawayo to the miners themselves,” Dep Minister Moyo said.
ZSM is a dynamic regional institution that serves the Southern African Development Community mining industry region by providing competency-based training for high calibre, hands on technicians.
For over 70 years the school has been training technicians who have made a positive impact in the mining industry globally. ZSM graduates are also found all over Africa and the rest of the world.
Training that is provided is relevant to the mining industry and is constantly revised to meet modern technological requirements.
derick.khumalo