Better Brands Mining is expected to resume mining operations in April as the company seeks to carry out all the recommendations laid out by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to restore solid Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) at the mine.
Rudairo Mapuranga
The mine recorded a record of fatalities of 21 deaths from January 2022 to January 2023 leading to the Environmental Authority ordering the mine to be closed so that it come up with a strategy to create a solid SHE policy.
Better Brands together with a number of small-scale miners popularly known as sponsors have been operating at what used to be one of the country’s biggest gold mines at a small-scale level leading to many deaths. Most of the deaths came from shafts that were operated by unregistered miners.
Better Brands Mining is therefore seeking to commercialize the operations at the Mine through mining at a larger scale and do away with small-scale like operations.
The company’s General Manager Cuthbert Chitima said that Better Brands seeks to expand operations from surface mining which was largely artisanal with a lot of safety challenges.
“By April we will start dewatering of the mine and hopefully go underground.
“As Better Brands Mining, we are there to serve the country and as such we are moving to expand our operations at Redwing by transitioning from surface mining which was largely artisanal with a lot of safety challenges, hence we are pouring in resources to upgrade it into commercial mining which improves on safety and foremost productivity, where we are aiming to surpass our 19 tonnes which we delivered last year,” said Chitima.
Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister, Honourable Polite Kambamura welcomed Better Brands’ move saying it will shape the country’s mineral production towards the attainment of the all-encompassing Vision 2030.
“As a ministry, we have taken heed of Better Brands’ wishes to ramp up production through commercialisation of their Redwing Mine and we will work with them to see that this comes to fruition in a very good working environment,” Dr Kambamura said.