Maravi

(HERALD) Promote legal small-scale gold mining

Promote legal small-scale gold mining
By Walter Nyamukondiwa and Stephen Muzanenhamo

FOLLOWING efforts by Government to restore law and order in the country’s gold mining sector through Operation Chikorokoza Chapera/Isitsheketsha Sesiphelile — a blitz geared at ridding Zimbabwe of illegal gold miners — attention has now shifted to the future of prospectors who are willing to resume "legal" small-scale mining.

The activities of illegal gold miners are prejudicing Zimbabwe of potential foreign currency earnings while simultaneously damaging the ecosystem and biodiversity.

However, the challenge now is to rejuvenate small-scale mining that will wholly benefit Zimbabwe and the prospectors under a binding legal framework.

A recent visit by The Herald to Chikuti in Makonde district — one of the areas ravaged by the vagaries of illegal mining activity — to assess the impact of Government initiated restoration programme revealed that most miners were eager to continue prospecting for gold.

However, their desire to earn a livelihood has been superseded by the need to be organised and operate in a sustainable manner that guarantees future generations a habitable environment.

Evidence of the attendant wholesale destruction of the environment caused by the "free-for-all" kind of gold mining all over the country is there for all to see as the landscape had become an eyesore.

Before the clampdown, Chikuti was a concentrated mining society composed of people from as far as Chipinge, Chiredzi and Mutoko and even some people from neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Mozambique.

Most of them were not registered, hence operated illegally.

This left loopholes in the monitoring of their activities, exposing Zimbabwe to greater prejudice as the gold found its way to the illegal parallel market where it was then smuggled out of the country.

Legally, the gold should be sold to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe through Fidelity Printers while marketing of minerals outside the country is a function of the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe.

Under those conditions, a society characterised by recklessness and disregard of the moral values that shape Zimbabweans emerged, dealing a blow to current efforts to reduce the prevalence of HIV and Aids.

The society had earned itself the name "Bush town" as any claim would have a high concentration of shops bringing roaring business to proprietors and women who sold anything from clothes and basic commodities while some resorted to selling their bodies or living-in with the big-spending makorokozas.

This led to the breakdown of some marriages and the moral fabric of the society.

Chikuti never bore the semblance of a developing town as infrastructure development was haphazard, most of it was temporary — itself a sign that people wanted to register quick gains and move elsewhere.

It had become normative that after hitting a gold belt, one would momentarily hang his tools and head back home either to squander or to invest the money.

Therein lay the problem as the resources from Chikuti were being continually siphoned illegally to other areas or smuggled out of the country.

There was little to benefit people in the 18 wards of the Chikuti area who were left to grapple with the defaced landscape which had become a silent ghost, maiming their livestock and threatening their lives in the process.

The police clampdown on the illegal miners, however, yielded results, but the damage had already been done.

Speaking at a stakeholders meeting with small-scale miners and Government departments recently, Mashonaland West Governor and Resident Minister Cde Nelson Samkange called for a multi-pronged approach to rejuvenate small-scale mining under a regulated regime.

"The Ministry of Mines should have been at the forefront in taming the excesses of illegal mining long before police intervention. It didn’t have to degenerate to this level to take action," said Cde Samkange.

He said mining inspectors should systematically issue mining claims while another arm of Government — the Environmental Management Agency — monitored activity at the claim to ensure compliance with mining and environmental regulations.

He noted that EMA faced manpower shortages.

Provincial administrator, Cde Christopher Shumba, concurred with the governor and called for the strengthening of EMA through boosting of manpower.

"A sufficient human resource base would make it easier for EMA to monitor and sanction any offenders," he said.

The activity of the illegal miners has left a mark on the environment that would be difficult to erase as gullies and gaping holes are common sight.

Of major concern has been the uncontrolled use of harmful chemicals such as cyanide and mercury to separate the gold from the ore — which was later recklessly discharged into Angwa River — the main source of drinking water for livestock and people.

This, coupled with the mounds of sand that were washed into the river, threatened clean water supply and irrigation activity downstream.

Exposure to cyanide and mercury could lead to abnormal births and even deaths.

Some people who were present said a regime similar to that prevailing in societies where wildlife has been incorporated into community tourism and benefiting those affected by the tourism activity through the Campfire programme, is necessary.

Councillor for Makonde ward Cde Betty Bhiri said Government should consider allocating mining concessions to localised co-operatives so that communities benefit from the resources around them.

"I think the allocation of mining concessions to local co-operatives would go a long way in empowering communities while at the same time ensuring adherence to environmental laws as any damage to the landscape would affect them directly," she said.

Parts of the funds realised from the mining activity, she said, would be used to build schools and other social amenities.

Officer commanding Mashonaland West police Senior Assistant Commissioner Moses Chihuri said police would continue monitoring hotspots to ensure compliance with Government’s thrust to establish an organised mining sector.

Over 16 000 people have so far been arrested in Mashonaland West Province since the operation began while 137 of these have been convicted with 14 getting sentences of between two and five years.

At least 29 people are wanted by the police to facilitate investigations into illegal trading in gold.

About 500 grammes of pure gold and 709 tonnes of gold ore have so far been recovered.

Government has shown willingness to restore sanity in small-scale mining by enacting the Financial Act number 2/2007.

The law seeks to dissuade illegal mining operations by imposing stiffer and deterrent penalties ranging between two to five years imprisonment with labour.

Offenders are not given the option of a fine.

Labels: MINING, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 5:25 AM