Published by the government of Zimbabwe
George Maponga
4 July 2009
Masvingo — Police here have dispatched a specialised team from the minerals section to assess reports of a gold rush at Zouma resettlement area in Gutu, as authorities move in to plug the resurgence of illegal mining activities in the country.
It has also emerged that a number of individuals have been jostling to get hold of licenses and claims so that they can legally exploit the potentially lucrative gold fields in the area.
Plans are reportedly underway by a consortium of licensed small-scale miners at Zouma to establish a milling plant to process the ore that is being extracted from reefs. Masvingo police spokesman Inspector Phibion Nyambo yesterday said they had dispatched a team of specialised security officers to investigate reports of a gold rush, and, if necessary, flush out any illegal miners.
Insp Nyambo reiterated that police were on a constant alert to deal with any illegal mining activities in the country. "We have sent a team to assess the situation at Zouma following reports that there is a gold rush in the resettlement area.
"We will always be on the lookout for those who venture into illegal mining activities, and if the illegal miners are indeed there we will definitely flush them out.
"As police we are always on the ground to make sure that there is no resurgence of illegal mining activities anywhere in the country and we have since constituted a minerals' section here in Masvingo that will deal with issues to to with illegal mining and exploitation of minerals," said Inspector Nyambo. Fears abound that the rush caused by reports of the discovery of gold in abandoned mining claims in Gutu could spark scenes reminiscent of the chaos that was witnessed in Chiadzwa after the discovery of near-surface diamonds in the eastern district in 2006.
Zimbabwe reportedly lost diamonds worth over US$1,2 billion from illegal mining activities at Chiadzwa with the mineral being smuggled out of the country through well-constructed syndicates, many of which were never brought to book.
Illegal mining activities have also caused immense environmental degradation in Manicaland and gold-rich parts of Midlands.
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