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Crime Reporter
A suspected gold panner died after being trapped for more than four days when a disused mine he was working in during the night collapsed last Tuesday in Chegutu.

Three of Blessmore Valley’s colleagues escaped unhurt when the incident occurred at Pickstone Mine.

Valley’s body, which was in a mine shaft about 20 metres deep, was retrieved on Saturday at around 9am and buried around 3pm the same day.

Chegutu West legislator Cde Dexter Nduna, who assisted with some of the equipment that was used to retrieve the body, said the accident was touching.

“There were four of them and working in a mine shaft searching for gold when it collapsed and trapped them,” he said.

The other three managed to escape unhurt, but Blessmore (24) was trapped and he died.

“On Wednesday, we then started using some equipment in order to retrieve the body and managed to retrieve it on Saturday morning.”

Cde Nduna said this was the second incident to occur in the area this year.

He said there was need to legalise gold panning since there were a lot of gold claims being held for speculative purposes by some of the companies mining in his constituency.

“We have noted with concern that claims are being held for speculative purposes by the white community and most of them are too tempting, said Cde Nduna.

Most of the artisanal miners go in there to get what they can and move off quickly thereafter.”

In December last year, five suspected gold panners from Kwekwe were killed, while another one escaped with minor injuries after a disused mine shaft they were working in collapsed.