Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy to hold an enquiry into the gold sector between the 15th and the 18th of July 2014 The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) is supporting 45 members of the portfolio committee on mines and energy to embark on a fact-finding mission which seeks to enquire into the Gold mining sector between the 15th and 18th of July. To this end two Public Hearings with communities shall be held as follows: I. Shamva Gold Mine (Metallon Gold) on Tuesday 15 July 2014 from 2:30pm to 4:30pm; and II. Blanket Gold Mine in Gwanda on Thursday 17 July 2014 from 11:00am to 1:00pm. All interested stakeholders are invited to be part of these public hearings so that they actively add their voice and ensure that they inform the legislators. The enquiry will also include conversations with small-scale miners and management of mining companies. The committee will tour the different mining sites for both large scale and artisanal mining operations that are taking place in Shamva, Chegutu, Kwekwe and Gwanda as a way of assessing the mining operations’ impacts. The field visit seeks to allow the committee to gather more information that relates to i. Formalization of artisanal miners (given how government is loosing revenue to trading of gold on the black market); ii. Environmental degradation; iii. Effectiveness of Fidelity Printers (given its gold buying monopoly) iv. Community benefits from mining and v. Performance of Government owned Gold Operations. ZELA is supporting this noble initiative as part of its work on capacitating parliament to effectively play its legislative, representative and oversight role in the extractive sector to ensure better environmental and natural resources governance. Gold is one of the precious stones in Zimbabwe, which has the potential of turning the fortunes of the country and focusing on it will complement the revenue government is getting from other valuable minerals such as diamonds and platinum which have been overtly discussed in recent discussions on mineral exploitation.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 13:44:13 +0000