A Chinese man got access to a chlorite quartz mine and bought a local man, Mr Honamombe two loaves, local opaque beer “Super” as a token of appreciation.
The incident that shook the local community took place in the Nyanga North Ruwange area.
Honamombe and his friends had previously dealt with the Chinese man selling him the healing stone thrice before until the Asian national persuaded Honamombe to show him where he was getting the stone.
Speaking to a source privy to the issue, Honamombe only realised too late after being confronted that he had made a costly mistake.
“We sold Zhou the Chinese man chlorite quartz three times before and were surprised to see him at the chlorite mine location in the company of Honamombe with 2 loaves and Super Chibuku,” said the source.
When confronted on why he had given away a valuable source of wealth for paltry foodstuff when they could have made a fortune from selling the stone only then did Honamombe realise his mistake. Zhou then rushed to peg the area and started moving equipment to the site.
Honamombe an ex-soldier then only recently moved to purchase a prospecting licence but it was too late.
The incident is a typical example of minerals getting taken from locals without getting any meaningful returns. This is mainly because many Zimbabweans do not know the value of minerals surrounding them and nothing much is being done to conscientise local communities of mineral wealth they have in their areas.
Commenting on the development Mines and Mining Development Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Chairman Hon Edmond Mkaratigwa said,
“It looks like an allegory and in fact more of a joke. The root cause of such eventualities includes incapacity less in terms of knowledge but more on unlocking the value of what they have and own as well as the inability to access relevant institutions.
“I have personally come across many and in that case, Women and Land, a local NGO intervened but agreements were already concluded. They can make money by investing in the sector but the main question is how? One of the easiest options is where the government has a full database of such national resources and with existing policy frameworks, if EIAs are duly conducted, such irregularities can be exposed. Community-based natural resources management is also another option but the country can strengthen the option found best.
Asked on what can be done to support Mining as is in Agriculture Mkaratigwa said similar models can be borrowed from Agriculture for the betterment of the mining sector.
“Like agriculture, some of the models can be borrowed. One of such is whereby a communal equipment base is set and miners can borrow for use for a fee, whenever they need the equipment. The other way is locally producing small-scale suited mining equipment which can be cheaper and locally maintained. That cuts the miners’ bills and allows circulation of foreign currency locally with positive effects on gold pricing and gold delivery payment models”.
“The case in point speaks to an aspect of contracts. All mineral resources belong to the state hence there is also a need of course to cascade mining issues to local levels. In this case, I still stand to be guided whether this was a commercial farmer or a communal landholder as both cases must have safeguards regarding uses of land and its transfer to other landholders,” Mkaratigwa concluded.
