More than 5 000 artisanal miners who had descended on Sandawana Mine in Mberengwa in search of lithium have been dispersed, an official has said.
The artisanal miners and dealers had descended on the defunct emerald mine in search of the newly-discovered lithium.
Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Larry Mavima said some “unscrupulous” businesspeople were buying the lithium from the illegal miners before exporting the mineral. Said Mavima:
We were informed that there was a lithium rush in Mberengwa and that’s why we decided to come down to have first-hand information on the goings on.
We have since stopped all the operations to allow for formal operations.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president, Henrietta Rushwaya, said artisanal miners should benefit from the lithium. She said:
We as ZMF are coming up with plans to make sure that artisanal miners benefit from lithium mining at the same time make sure that Government is benefiting from this lithium mining.
Meanwhile, Kuvimba Mining House will be conducting exploration works at Sandawana Mine after it obtained a mining tribute for the mine. | The Herald