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    Artisanal mining needs proper monitoring

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    THE small-scale mining sector has played an important role in gold production in recent years, in the country, accounting for almost double the output of established producers and offering livelihoods opportunities to at least between half a million and one and half million people.

    This means they are helping the country to earn considerable amounts in foreign currency.

    However, this significant role should not be an excuse for appearing to turn a blind eye to the continued loss of lives through mine shafts collapsing on artisanal miners or illegal gold panners. So far this year 19 miners have died, while the worst mining deaths were recorded in 2023 when 237 people died.

    Recent losses have been recorded at an area called Kitsiyatota in Bindura, Mashonaland Central Province, after seven artisanal miners went down a mine shaft at Botha Gold Mine, which then collapsed while they were underground. Kitsiyatota has itself been a site of violent attacks and clashes, which have claimed lives.

    Before the mine shaft collapse at Kitsiyatota, Zimbabwe suffered the loss of four miners at Olympus Mine in Mahaka area of Mudzi District in Mashonaland East Province. There were two recorded deaths in Mashonaland West Province, one in Manicaland Province and six in The Midlands, where two of the deaths were reported at Knot Brothers Farm in Mberengwa, after a shaft the miners were working in collapsed. Nineteen lives lost in just a month should be unacceptable. The high number of deaths recorded in January is related to the heavy rains, which in turn rendered the ground unstable, making it more dangerous to work underground.

    The argument why these mining activities require monitoring is to ensure that during rains, such as those recently witnessed in the country, mining activities are halted in order to prevent potential loss of lives.

    The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and the Environmental Management Agency, might both not have the staff to monitor activities at mining sites, but the rural district councils and councillors relying on the police, could play an important role in ensuring adherence to halting mining activities during periods when conducting underground operations could be dangerous.

    The second major reasons why mining activities require monitoring is because of the danger the operations pose to the environment, humans and wildlife and domestic livestock.

    The risks are in two parts – one is because of the environmental degradation, animals and people are drowning in the gaping pits that artisanal miners leave behind without being restored. The second risk arises from the chemicals that artisanal miners use in extracting gold from their workings. The chemicals used flow into rivers, dams or reservoirs poisoning drinking water for people and animals. Estimates put 96 percent of artisanal gold mining sites as using mercury, which puts people, livestock and wildlife at risk.

    A current case is the stand-off in Matopos National Park, where miners have cost farmers their cattle, valued at millions of dollars. The cattle are being lost because of cyanide poisoning after the animals drink water contaminated with cyanide, drowning in trenches left behind by miners, as well as through outright stock theft.

    By ensuring that there is proper and adequate monitoring of activities at the various artisanal mining sites, lives, animals and the environment could be saved.

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