Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

Two illegal gold miners died while five others are feared dead after they were trapped underground when a shaft collapsed.

The accident occurred in the early hours of Saturday at Interfah Mine also known as Success Mine in Matobo District, Matabeleland South Province.

Illegal miners invaded the area after news broke that rich gold deposits had been discovered.

When the a local publication, The Chronicle arrived at the scene yesterday, a sombre atmosphere engulfed the area with scores of gold miners from other surrounding mines gathered at Interfah Mine as they watched an excavator digging for the bodies.

By last night, two bodies had been retrieved from the shaft as rescue teams continued with their frantic efforts to reach and rescue those still trapped in the pit.

Contrary to the rowdy and rivalry behaviour synonymous with gold panners, the exhumation of the two bodies presented a spirit of brotherhood as they volunteered to carry the bodies of their departed colleagues.

“These are our brothers, we might not know them, but by virtue of them being gold panners it means they are our brothers,” said one panner.

The mine is reportedly owned by a syndicate of three men.

A director of the mine Mr Philani Ncube said the trapped gold miners illegally entered the mine. The legal owners had not started operations as they were still in the registration stage.

“This is our mine and we had not commenced operations as we are in the process of registering. We got reports that there were people coming to illegally mine here after discovering gold deposits using detectors,” he said.

“We then engaged the police from Matopo and they deployed the riot police from their Support Unit who came and dispersed them.”

“The gold panners who were trapped in the mine shaft came at night to illegally mine and unfortunately the pit collapsed on them.”

At the time of going to press, police were still conducting investigations. Police officers who attended the scene took the two bodies to a mortuary in Bulawayo. While the number of the miners suspected to have been working inside the pit could not be confirmed, reports say five could be still trapped inside the pit.

In October, a man died and four others survived when a mine shaft collapsed at an illegal mine in New Parklands suburb in Bulawayo. Several shafts and tunnels at other mines have collapsed, trapping miners with authorities warning people against illegal mining activities during the rainy season

The district development co-ordinator for Matobo, who is also the head of the district civil protection unit, Mr Obey Chaputsira, said they had since been informed by the police about the tragedy.

Mr Chaputsira said miners should exercise caution considering that the country is in the rainy season when more mining shafts collapse.

“Due to the rains that we are receiving, the land becomes unstable hence we encourage those in the mining sector to follow precautionary measures as directed by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. There can be gold rushes and so forth, but miners have to adhere to safety measures. We can’t continue losing people due to unsafe mining procedures.”

Mr Chapuritsa extended his condolences to the families of the deceased miners.

In May, seven miners at Bucks Mine in Colleen Bawn plunged to their death after hoisting ropes to a skip bringing them up a 240-metre-deep shaft snapped 15 metres from the surface.

The skip cage they were in, dragged the miners to the bottom of the shaft with first responders to the scene reportedly seeing splatters of blood on the walls of the shaft going down. Rescue workers spent over 72 hours trying to pump out water from the underground mine in order to retrieve the bodies of the miners who were trapped underwater.

Some of the retrieved bodies had been badly injured with skin peeling off due to prolonged exposure to water.

Chronicle

The issues of speculative Exclusive Prospecting Orders (EPOs) and the rise of mine-grabbing cartels highlighted proceedings at the launch of the Miners for Economic Development (Miners for ED) Mashonaland West Chapter on Friday.

Rudairo Mapuranga

While EPOs are very important for Zimbabwe to quantify its mineral resources’ worth due since the country is hamstrung by a lack of exploration, EPOs have been abused by unscrupulous individuals who are now using the titles for other reasons, not exploration.

Speaking at the launch of the miners for ED Mashonaland West Province Chapter at Golden valley mine in Kadoma, Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) President Ms Henrietta Rushwaya urged the government to look into issues affecting miners, especially the issue of EPOs where land has been closed for pegging but with nothing being done by in terms of exploration.

“Our greatest plea that made us gather here is the issue of EPOs. Deputy Minister Hon Dr Polite Kambamura may you please pass our concerns to the government. EPO number 56 of 18 in Chakari, EPO 21 of 18 Golden Valley, EPO number 18 of 18 in Sanyati and EPO number 20 of 18 in Venice should be looked into,” Rushwaya said.

The Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Hon Polite Kambamura who was the guest of honour at the event said the government was already cancelling some EPOs that we found to be held for speculative purposes.

“The issue of EPO has reached the hears of the President HE Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and we were ordered to look into the matter. We have discovered that people with EPOs are not really doing anything but holding the areas for selfish reasons. We have started cancelling some EPOs and we are going to cancel more speculative EPOs. In future we are going to cancel EPOs if they go for 6 months without providing any exploration reports,” Dr Kambamura said.

ZMF Mashonaland West Provincial Chairperson Mr Timothy Chizuzu on issues of mine grabbing said his organization was working closely with the police to ensure that miners are protected from a cartel that robs miners of their mining claims.

“We are trying to encourage small-scale miners to acquire Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). We have also been working closely with the police to ensure that miners are not robbed of their claims and we have been assisting our miners with court proceedings to save them from the cartels,” Chizuzu said.

Recently Mining Zimbabwe published an article of a sophisticated, dangerous and skimming mine-grabbing cartel which has invaded the City of Gold (Kadoma) and the surrounding areas where the cartel has been grabbing mines owned by unsuspecting individuals and mining syndicates.

The skimmers of the cartel (mainly gold buyers) will identify and investigate a small-scale gold mine that is consistently producing high grades. They then identify loopholes that they can use to create a dispute so that mining operations can be suspended by the court.

After creating disputes and taking the matters through the courts of law, the cartel makes sure that the case will never come out of court whilst operations are suspended as a way of making the miner desperate. (The miner will be accumulating debts from unpaid employees, lawyers and other costs related to the suspension of the operations thereby making him/her desperate to seek an outside court settlement.) READ MORE HERE

Total Eren, a renewable energy Independent Power Producer (IPP) based in France and Chariot, the Africa-focused transitional energy company, are pleased to announce that, pursuant to the partnership entered into in November 2021, Total Eren and Chariot have agreed to work together on the development, financing, construction, and operation of a solar photovoltaic (PV) project that will provide competitive electricity for the Karo Platinum Project, in Zimbabwe.

The solar PV project is expected to have an initial installed capacity of 30 MWp with a potential extension of up to 300 MWp.

Total Eren and Karo Mining Holdings (“Karo”) previously signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as the first step towards implementation and signing of a long–term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the supply of electricity. Karo and the Partners will now pursue the next steps of development of the PV project.

Fabienne Demol, Executive Vice–President & Global Head of Business Development of Total Eren, commented: “We are very pleased to partner again with Chariot on a new renewable energy project dedicated to the mining sector. Our solar project will enable the Karo Platinum Mine to be supplied in low carbon electricity during its operating life, therefore reducing its carbon footprint and generating a competitive source of electricity supply in Zimbabwe. I look forward to delivering this solar project and wish to start even more renewable energy projects in this country where our strategic shareholder, TotalEnergies, holds a strong footprint.”

Benoit Garrivier, Chariot Transitional Power CEO, added: “In partnering with Total Eren on this project, we advance towards our objective of delivering a 1 GW renewable energy pipeline and developing some of the largest sustainable power projects in Africa. We wish Karo all the best with their construction phase and look forward to implementing the solar plant build in due course.”

Bernard Pryor, MD of Karo Mining Holdings, declared: “As part of our sustainable development plan, green power was always placed at the forefront of our energy strategy. Land designated to develop this type of power strategy has been allocated, close to the Karo Mine but also being mindful of a broader power strategy that we will develop with our partners and the government of Zimbabwe, to ensure stable and lasting green energy benefitting all our stakeholders and beyond.”

Source: PV

Mines and Mining Development Minister Hon Winston Chitando will be officiating the Karo Resources Commencement of construction ceremony this morning.

Karo is gearing up for its open-pit platinum mining project in Ngezi.

Karo will design and construct fully integrated facilities to ensure the maximum extraction of value from mining, through the value chain to final Base Metal and Precious Metal refining.

Karo is currently set to have an annual PGM production of 194,000 oz (6E – platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and gold), and a mine life of 17 years and will add further to the fairly exclusive list of open pit platinum producers in southern Africa which includes Tharisa’s namesake mine, Anglo American’s Mogalakwena and SPM’s Pilanesberg Platinum Mines, all in South Africa. Currently, all the major platinum mines in Zimbabwe are underground, including Ngezi, Unki and Mimosa.

“Developing a tier one project in this unique geological setting comes once in a lifetime,” said Bernard Pryor, MD Karo Mining Holdings in a recent investor presentation on the project, which has seen over $70 million of investment to date but will ultimately cost over $390 million. The project is located on the Great Dyke, south of the Zimplats Selous Metallurgical Plant and north of the Zimplats Ngezi underground operations. It is in the Mashonaland West district of Zimbabwe, approximately 80 km southwest of Harare and 35 km southeast of Chegutu.

Development will take 24 months of a low-risk, fully licenced open pit. Phoevos Pouroulis, CEO of Tharisa, commented in the company’s FY22 results ending September 30: “We have advanced our position in Karo Platinum, which is on track to become the second world-class asset in our portfolio. The next major milestone is ‘ground-breaking’ at the Karo site in December 2022, as this PGM asset moves into the construction phase, with inaugural production planned for within the next 24 months.”

First Ore In Mill (FOIM) is scheduled for July 2024. The mining plan will target mining 2.1 Mt/y of run-of-mine material for the Phase 1 operations, at a grade of 3 g/t (5PGE+Au).  The mining operations will be undertaken by a mining contractor, which has already been appointed but not yet named. An owner’s mineral resource management team will be in place for oversight of the mining operations and grade control.  The mining operations will see the development of four open pits being developed sequentially, up to a maximum pit depth of 100 m over a total strike length greater than 20 km.

The processing of the ROM will be through an MF2 PGM flotation circuit, processing 175,000 t/mth of ROM.  The average annual production of PGMs in concentrate will be 150 kozpa (5PGE+Au).  The processing plant has been designed using proven technology and beneficiation processes. Primary crushing will reduce ROM to F80 -120 mm followed by secondary (F80 -40 mm) and tertiary (F80 -15 mm) cone crushing following by primary ball milling to F60 -75 micron followed by a bank of six primary rougher flotation cells and three high grade cleaner stages, thickening and filtration using a tower press filtration. Primary rougher flotation tails go to secondary ball milling (F80 -75 micron) then a bank of six secondary rougher cells and two low grade cleaner stages prior to the thickening and filtration. The long lead time items – including the two ball mills and the flotation cells have already been ordered.

Karo Mining Holdings (KMH) has been scouting for platinum mining and refining opportunities in Zimbabwe since 2009. In January 2014, the Government of Zimbabwe issued an expression of interest for companies to further develop PGM opportunities, to which Karo submitted an expression of interest.

KMH acquired its project concession area, measuring 23 903 ha, in March 2018 and entered into the Investment Framework Agreement with the Republic of Zimbabwe.

The project is located in the Mashonaland West province of Zimbabwe, approximately 80 km southwest of Harare and 35 km southeast of Chegutu.

A Mining Lease application was submitted to the Mining Affairs Board, where the tenure of the Mining Lease under the legislation is for the life of the mine. The Mining Lease was issued on 12 March 2021 and provides security of tenure.