A day out for pegging with the Pros
Timella Mining Consultancy afforded me the opportunity of experiencing first-hand pegging of mining claims in the Battlefields area of Mashonaland West.
A team of two, a Pegger and Geotech were introduced and we prepared for the 50km journey. We set off for the journey with Hazel (Geotech) and Ngoni (pegger) who joined later. As were 5km from the site the road became so bad that we had to leave our vehicle behind and foot the rest of the way.
Being used to office dwellings and almost no exercise 8km plus was a tough job. I also felt for Hazel with the scorching heat as we embarked on the thorny journey. To my surprise, we had to occasionally jog and ask her to slow down. The journey was through a dense thorny bushy area with no defined path. We had to endure getting our clothes caught in thorns.
We got to the coordinates of the claim and Ngoni sprang into action. I asked what about the pegging was and gladly the friendly guy said,
“Pegging is posting of prospecting notices and registration and establishment of temporal beacons before submitting an application for registration to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. When a Prospecting Licence holder has identified a mineral deposit that he/she is interested in, he/she appoints an agent or an Approved Prospector to peg on his behalf”. Ngoni continued.
“The agent is required to physically peg the area by marking the deposit with a Discovery Peg. So the first thing is for a person to have the prospecting license which allows the holder to an area suitable for mining. Once the prospecting license is acquired then the holder has to involve a prospector so that the prospector will then help to peg the area after consulting with the mining office to check if the area is allowed to mine”.
Meanwhile, Hazel was surveying the place and later gave us an update.
“There is scarce vegetation around the area and thorny bushes the reason being it might be the toxic conditions produced by mineralization underground which will create a harsh environment for vegetation to grow”.
“There are outcrops striking in an EW direction with felsic rocks containing potassium feldspar and sodium plagioclase.
“A river with a dendritic drainage pattern lies on the southern part of the block. The area is still virgin land which I will place under greenfields. I recommend proper mapping and sampling procedures to be done before sinking shafts of course these will include geochemical and geophysical surveys in their stages”.
After the pegging process was complete I took the chance to protest to Hazel how fast she walked us and she laughed it off.
“People say I walk fast but I barely recognize it. Having a passion for becoming the best female exploration geologist of all time, drawn by what mother earth brings to humanity has turned me to enjoy spending 90 % of my time in the bundu mapping and pegging. So I am used to walking fast and long distances. I will boldly and proudly say I have been trained well with both my Geophysicist lecturer Mr. TL Matete and my Boss Dr. T Chizuzu. They did not spoonfeed me but rather adequately trained me. I have adopted the jungle law and this has greatly networked me in a short space of time. I love my work.
This article first appeared in the September 2020 Mining Zimbabwe Magazine