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Midlands Correspondent
The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development in the Midlands province has come up with a raft of measures to monitor chrome mining activities following the mushrooming of highway miners who are damaging road infrastructure, as well as putting the lives of people and animals at risk.

The measures include forcing the chrome miners to reclaim pits left after the extraction of the mineral, employing permanent and qualified mining managers to monitor and control mining activities and educating the miners about responsible mining.

Two weeks ago, Government ordered all chrome mining activities along the Shurugwi-Zvishavane Highway to stop due to the destruction that the unplanned extraction of the mineral was causing to the road.

In an interview, Midlands provincial mining director Engineer Nelson Munyanduri said his ministry was optimistic that the raft of measures will bring sanity to chrome mining activities in the province.

“All miners should have mining titles in the form of certificates, grants or tributes,” he said. “Such titles prevent irresponsible mining as miners will be acquainted with mining laws and rehabilitation guidelines.

“All miners are required to practise responsible mining by reclaiming all the pits they would have left during their mining activities, before moving on to another area.

“Every miner should have an appointed manager who will help them practise responsible mining and help miners rehabilitate the area after they are done excavating because you cannot leave all those pits uncovered.”

Eng Munyanduri said chrome mining had been on the increase in the province, following arise in chrome prices on the world market.

“Since the surge in chrome prices on the world market, there has been an increase in the extraction of the mineral along the road, a development that has seen excavators and front-end loaders being used by miners just a few metres from the Shurugwi-Zvishavane Highway,” he said.