Illegal miners ejected from Sandawana
One of the country’s biggest mining group, Kuvimba Mining House has driven away illegal lithium miners from its Sandawana claims to pave way for exploration as the company seek to quantify its resource for large-scale operations.
Rudairo Mapuranga
While Kuvimba gave the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) a portion of its claims as a tribute which thousands of youth from Mberengwa are now working on, the other claims were reserved for the former who is expected to work on exploration.
Illegal Miners invaded the lands rendering it difficult for Kuvimba to carry out exploration leading to the partly-owned government company seeking assistance to chase away the miners.
Speaking to this publication the ZMF President Ms Henrietta Rushwaya welcomed the development by Kuvimba to bring sanity to the area as the activities of illegal miners were putting the name of the Federation to disrepute as authorities were unable to distinguish between the Federation’s miners and illegal miners.
“The people that were now mining are illegal miners who allocated themselves non-designated areas to mine. Kuvimba is doing its exploration and we are yet to be deployed on areas that they deem fit after exploration. If people invade an area without permission, they must be removed. This is in accordance with the Zimbabwe Mining Laws. We cannot support disorderly mining and this should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves. Property rights must be respected at all times. Those with ZMF registration cards will soon be deployed in the designated areas.
It was also reported that illegal miners were posing Safety, Health and Environment risks as well as enabling the smuggling of the “white gold” by selling to unscrupulous buyers.
“It came to our realization that those who were now digging haphazardly were unauthorized and were not people from Mberengwa and they were selling the lithium to illegal buyers whose trucks were now a common phenomenon in Mberengwa. Health issues were now a big challenge and the wear and tear of the roads and the small bridges. The locals were now adversely affected considering that no taxes were paid and the Rural District Council was prejudiced in the process. There was more disorder than anything and as ZMF, we requested that order be restored. The Area has been peaceful in the last three days and we thank the Acting President and the Police for ensuring that sanity prevails in Mberengwa. Once normalcy returns, and exploration is done officially registered groupings will be allowed to Kuvimba designated mining areas meant for small-scale miners. Let’s also bear in mind that SI 213 of 2022 Section 4 b 1 and 2 makes illegal mining an offence that can result in a jail sentence. I would like to appeal to the sector to exercise patience and tolerance when it comes to mining issues. Above all, the place belongs to Kuvimba and let’s allow them the opportunity to show us designated areas to mine from and not the other way round,” Ms Rushwaya said.
Illegal miners have been causing havoc across the country with the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) carrying out an operation called “Chikorokoza Chapera” to clamp down on illegal miners who often end up engaging in violence and land degradation among other ills. The decade-old operation by October 2021 had 50 000 illegal miners arrested.