Venice mine takes part in community empowerment
It is quite impressing that our mines are associating with the communities in which they operate in as a way of guaranteeing decent living conditions within the communities. Speaking to Mining Zimbabwe, Shawn Lavaia who is the safety, health and environment officer of Venice mine highlighted on the projects that they are doing for the community and what the mining company is looking forward to achieving. They are creating job opportunities for the locals, assisting the nearby police stations as well as assisting school children with scholarships.
Mirirai Melissa Ngoya
It is critical for a community to have decent roads, as such Mr Lavaia outlined that Venice mine has engaged in the road maintenance project in order to ensure accessibility as well as safety when travelling.
“the road maintenance from Empress Turn-off to Munyati river has been a successful project for the benefit of the community and the nation at large,” he said
The company has provided a platform for job creation where the locals are being included in the mining operations. Mr Lavaia said, “We draw our manpower labour force from the local community, thus employment creation.”
Considerably, Venice mine has also been active in helping other mines in times of tribulations as highlighted by Mr Lavaia.
“We assisted with fuel, labour and material at Cricket Mine disaster,” he said.
Recently, there has been a lot of criminal cases being reported in the area, hence Venice Mine has partnered with the local police station supporting them in seeing that there is no mineral violation within the area.
Mr Lavaia said “as a mine, we figured out that it is important to offer a helping hand to our community police force since they keep an eye on the mine as well as making sure that there is no mineral violations or any skirmishes within the community. Therefore, we decided to assist Battlefields Zimbabwe Republic Police Station with stationery. We also helped the Police with fuel and transport provisions in emergencies.”
Further, Venice mine highlighted that they are also concerned with good environmental services which the safety, health and environment officer applauded for. He indicated that they are offering mowing services to the local ZRP station as well as in schools around the community.
“We are doing mining operations related to that big Venice mine we used to have, but in real terms, we are still a small and struggling mine which we hope will stand on its feet in the near future. So far we cannot afford to start big projects but we hope that very soon we will reach that level.”
Mr Lavaia also emphasised on the projects which they intend to do in the community. Venice mine noticed that it is a requisite to have operational health care facilities in the area since health is the key factor to consider especially for the locals who reside in places where mining activities take place.
“We are looking forward to the opening of our clinic which will be operational in emergency cases, attending to everyone in the community as well as mine workers.”
“It is important to subsidise Domain Rural council clinic so that it improves its health services”
All in all, apart from producing the yellow mineral which is targeted towards the nation’s economic development, Venice mines is taking strides in developing the community in which it is operating in.