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BULAWAYO Mining Company (BMC) wants to conduct fresh exploration on its claims around Bulawayo to extend mining life and enhance increased gold output.

The company has since engaged BUMIRA Environmental Consultants to gather views from various stakeholders who might be affected by the proposed project as well as from those interested in the project’s activities.

In a statement the consulting company said the new exploration and mining projects will be conducted on claims in Umzingwane District, Matabeleland South and Umguza District, Matabeleland North.

“Bulawayo Mining Company intends to undertake exploration and mining on its Happy Valley (Hope Fountain) and Bulawayo South claims, namely Lone Trail, Vale and Redbank claims, which are 35km South-East of the city of Bulawayo via Old Gwanda Road while the Happy Valley are 20km East of the city of Bulawayo via Hope Fountain Road,” said the company.

“The scope of exploration activities includes traverse cutting, soil sampling, trenching and pitting, access road preparation, RC drilling, core drilling and continued reconnaissance ofall the claims while the mining method may include surface open cast mining and eventual migration to underground mining.”

BUMIRA Environmental Consultants said as part of the consultation and exploration process, protection of the environment, human health and well-being, mitigation of climate change and conversation of nature would be prioritised in line with sustainability best practice.

“In accordance with this commitment the organisation has a proactive practice on conducting environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA), which take into account compliance obligations…,” said BUMIRA.

It said the purpose of the stakeholder consultation is to ascertain on the immediate, short to long-term direct and indirect impacts of the project on the surrounding communities and other stakeholders.

The Chronicle

After completing secondary school, Terrence Nyoni joined the job-seeking band wagon and never got an opportunity to be employed formally.

He hopped from one informal job to another, and his efforts to be employed by his “dream” mining company, Unki Mine in Shurugwi, never materialised.

Despite having attained 5 O’ Levels, though after years of trying, Nyoni  never found joy in getting a job, even something clerical, which he desired to do.

After a decade of toiling from one workplace to another, with interludes of joblessness, Nyoni gave in to the realities of life and joined the artisanal mining bandwagon.

He was forced to relinquish his trademark bald head and clean beard shave for dreadlocks and long beard that earned him the moniker Ras Tee in the gold-foraging jungles of Boterekwa in Shurugwi.

Using his big frame, Nyoni  would torment fellow artisanal miners, deceive them or forcefully take their gold loot, and in some instances, he would force himself on any woman he set his eyes on.

He was about to be inducted into the “Makorokoza Hall of Infamy” and earn the title Bhuru or MuShurugwi, but that was not to be, as Nyoni got sick.

Several visits to the local district hospital, popularly known as KwaMakarima, yielded nothing as his health kept deteriorating.

After screening for silicosis and TB courtesy of the Zimbabwe’s Kunda-Nqob’ iTB project, funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s TB Local Organisation Network funding mechanism, Nyoni was diagnosed with TB.

A total 7 317 new TB cases were detected in hard to reach population groups since 2019 through the Kunda-Nqob’ iTB project, which is being implemented by the Union Zimbabwe Trust (UZT) through its local consortium partners, Baines Occupational Health (BOCH), Jointed Hands Welfare Organisation (JHWO) and HOSPAZ.

The project is targeting artisanal and small-scale miners in the Midlands, and Matabeleland South provinces, targeting districts such as Gweru, Kwekwe, Shurugwi Zvishavane, Insiza and Gwanda, which have high artisanal mining activities, as well as Mwenezi in Masvingo province.

 Zimbabwe has an estimated population of more than 500 000 artisanal and small-scale miners, with over 1 500 000 people depending on artisanal and small-scale mining.

“I am on the road to recovery,” said Nyoni, from his Ironsides home in Shurugwi.

“I was lucky that I got treatment on time thanks to this programme that is targeting gold panners.”

Artisanal and small-scale mining is characterised by excessive exposure to occupational hazards such as mercury- and silica-containing dust.

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, silica dust has been classified as a group one carcinogen and is associated with lung cancer.

“KN-TB has contributed to the detection of 7 317 TB cases since 2019,” UZT technical director Sithabiso Dube.

“In the districts where we are, these are the numbers that have come out.

“We do not work as a silo, we are supporting the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the projects districts contributed 16% of the national TB notification.

“The project is being implemented in the districts that were not doing well before and we are really seeing the improvement.”

Nyoni said his duties as an artisanal miner exposed him to dust where there was poor ventilation and he worked without adequate personal protective equipment.

“When I became a mukorokoza I used to work in overcrowded and poorly ventilated shafts,” he said.

“Sometimes I would not go back home after work but join fellow miners in the overcrowded compounds.

“We would go into the makeshift overcrowded bars at night.”

Dube said artisanal miners were among groups being left out on a number of intervention programmes due to a number of factors.

“Artisanal miners have poor health-seeking behaviour and live in overcrowded and poor shelters,” she said.

“Overcrowding and poorly ventilated shafts predispose them to both silicosis and TB.

“Artisanal miners’ highly nomadic life complicates the provision of comprehensive health services.

“It may be difficult for them to adhere to TB treatment since they must attend scheduled clinic visits for a number of months.”

The Kunda-Nqob’ iTB project, according to Dube seeks to have TB services reach out to artisanal and small-scale miners.

“We wanted to make sure that we can reach them and also screen them,” she said.

“We found that using this target population screening, our yields have improved and we are now finding more and more of those missing cases using both the outreach and clinical approach.

“Plans are under way to expand the KN-TB programme to other four districts namely Shamva, Chegutu, Sanyati and Mazowe to make them 12 even though the proposal is yet to be approved by the USAid.”

She said the expanded footprint will increase population reach from 1 629 728 to 2 645 654 and contribute to finding an additional 4 534 TB cases over two years (subject to concurrence withrespective new districts).

Mxolisi Ngwenya from the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s Aids and TB Unit said the new approach has seen them killing two birds with one stone.

“We have adopted what is known as integrated TB and HIV care where we do TB screening and at the same time test for HIV,” Ngwenya said.

“You will notice when you get to a clinic. Whatever clinic, think of any clinic you have been to.

“When we also suspect that you have HIV, we screen you for TB because these two diseases move side-by-side.

“This has been so successful because we now know the HIV status of 99,9% of people with TB in Zimbabwe.”

Zimbabwe is one of the countries heavily burdened by TB, TB/HIV and multi-drug resistant TB. Just over 11,58% of the country’s adults are living with HIV and the TB estimated incidence was 193/100 000 people in 2020.

TB is also primarily an HIV-driven epidemic with TB/HIV co-infection rate in Zimbabwe estimated to be 54% in 2020.

Nyoni believes he will soon recover and vowed not to go back to the shafts.

“If I recover, I will not go back to the trenches unless there are proper safety measures including personal protection equipment,” he said.

The Standard 

BELARUSIAN and Chinese miners have invaded the internationally acclaimed Musangano Lodge in Manicaland’s Mutasa district to prospect for gold and other minerals.

The property is owned by a German national, Birgit Klein Alterkamp and is protected by Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement  (BIPPA).

Alterkamp has now dragged Belarusian and Chinese companies Zim Gold Fields (ZGF) and Young Tech Engineering (YTE) respectively to the High Court to stop them from disrupting her business operations.

The High Court in Mutare ruled in her favour and interdicted ZGF and YTE from continuing with mining operations.

But ZGF and YTE challenged the ruling at the Supreme Court, and the matter is yet to be heard.

Alterkamp told The Standard that the mining operations impacted negatively on their hospitality business.

“On May 5, 2022, we were approached by a company named YTE which was contracted by a company named ZGF apparently involving Belarusian and Chinese interests, claiming to have a special grant from the Zimbabwean government to conduct mining of alluvial gold and other minerals,” Alterkamp  said in a statement seen by this publication.

“A portion of the claim area is within our property bordering Mutare River. ZGF and YTE expressed the intention to mine on our property.”

“In one of the letters, ZGF and YTE stated that we had verbally given them the permission to mine on our property which is false and we had stated that the environment impact assessment (EIA) had not been done which is a requirement to the laws of Zimbabwe. ZGF and YTE replied stating that they do not need an EIA,” she said.

According to Alterkamp, on July 8, 2022, ZGF and YTE deployed heavy machinery and started carrying out mining activities on the properties adjacent to the lodge.

“They had four excavators and three tippers operating 24/7,” she said.

“The noise produced by this heavy machinery disturbed guests at Musangano Lodge.

“On August 29 we received a letter around 12pm stating mining activities within our property.

“ZGF/YTE entered our property at around 2pm on August 29, 2022 with four excavators and three tipper trucks.

“They engaged in the opening of deep casts.”

This forced Alterkamp to file an urgent High Court application.

An interim interdict directing ZGF and YTE to stop mining operations was issued on September 1 by the Mutare High Court.

“This was effected on Thursday 1 September in the early evening when the heavy machinery was withdrawn from our premises. Since then ZGF/YTE have submitted various objections, our lawyer’s submitted applications countering the above,” reads the statement

“After submitting an appeal at the Supreme court to suspend the interim interdict ZGF/YTE returned on September 6 with even greater force and speed, quite apparently to maximize the mining activities and to utilize each minute while using fine-tuned legal steps to prevent ZGF and YTE from being stopped operating.”

Land under BIPPAs is exempt from invasions.

However, during the fast track land reform programme a number of farms under BIPPA were invaded.

In 2020, government announced that it would offer land back to two categories of farmers who were dispossessed under land reform.

Under Section 295 of the Constitution, farmers under BIPPAs and indigenous farmers must be compensated for land seized during the land reform exercise.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Zimbabwe has ratified at least 12 such agreements with countries such as South Africa, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Switzerland, among others.

The Standard