Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Penhalonga report update
Centre for Research and Development
April 24, 2013

Download this document
- Acrobat PDF version (810KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

Background

The second large-scale company mining gold in Penhalonga is a partnership between the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) and a partnership with OZGEO (Pvt) Ltd, a Harare based subsidiary of a Russian state-owned company All Russian Economic Association on Geological Prospecting (Zarabeygeogica) to form DTZ-OZGEO. DTZ was set up as an initiative of the late Vice President Dr. Joshua Nkomo to ensure the active participation of Zimbabweans in development projects and the management of their natural resources. The mining projects in Penhalonga and Chimanimani in Manicaland Province which has seen the company getting a special mining grant to mine gold in the river bed a move that has been resented by many environmental experts and member of the community alike. Their mining operations are shrouded in secrecy and there is very little involvement of the local members of the community in the mining activities a situation that President Mugabe in 2011 commented at a Chief meeting by allegedly saying:

“We were told that DTZ and their Russian counterparts are mining gold in Chimanimani and now its diamonds its diamonds. We have not realised any real revenue coming from them and they are saying they are having difficulties. I talked to some of the directors during our December People’s Conference here in Mutare and I told them that they were remaining too much in isolation and why do they don’t get transparent”

CRD followed on some of these indications by undertaking a research project to examine the socio-economic and environmental impacts of gold mining in Penhalonga and in its preliminary findings, CRD identified a myriad of challenges that communities are facing at the hands of mining companies in the are including DTZ-OZGEO.

Purpose of the Report

• Narrate the death of Joseph Mutasa at the hands of DTZ-OZGEO alluvial gold mining company
• Highlight some of the preliminary findings on the ongoing research on the socio-economic and environmental impacts of gold mining in Penhalonga which has a bearing on the death of the artisanal miner and the ongoing conflict between mining companies and artisanal miners in Penhalonga.
• This report is part of CRD’s advocacy efforts to encourage critical stakeholder in the extractive sector including government to find a lasting solution to address this natural resource conflict that has become a human rights issue due to loss of lives and injuries that artisanal miners and the community continue to face in this sector.

Download full document

Visit the Centre for Research and Development fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP