HARARE, An initial 50 workers have been engaged to re-process dumps at the Shabanie-Mashava Mines in order to raise part of the funding required to re-open the mothballed asbestos mines in Zimbabwe's Midlands Province, says Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando.
Shabanie Mine, which used to be one of the biggest employers in the province with more than 2,000 workers, was closed in 2004 after experiencing severe operational challenges.
Chitando told Parliament this week that work was being carried out to drain flooded mine shafts of water.
There is activity in progress now in de-watering of the mine in Mashava and we expect that the mine would be de-watered by December. At the same time we have recognized that to partly address issues to do with funding of the mine we identified re-processing of one of the dumps as a low hanging fruit so as a result as we talk we do have about 50 people at the dump, mobilising to start the re-processing of the dump which should commence by May this year.
Chitando said the number of workers to be engaged to process the dump was expected to rise to 350 people. The whole game plan being that the funds which will be raised from the re-processing of that dump will then be used to re-open Mashava mine when we finish de-watering in December this year, he said.
He said contrary to recent media reports, the government was yet to secure an investor for the mine. The mine falls under the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) so the government is working together with the administrator and ZMDC on plans to ensure that some of the operations get back to generating employment and revenue for the country.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK
