Zimbabwean police have arrested at least 16 000 suspected gold panners and seized more than three kilogrammes of gold in a sweeping crackdown on illegal miners, a police spokesperson said on Thursday.
”According to figures coming from our 10 provinces we have so far arrested 16 290 illegal gold panners and dealers since the launch of the current operation,” said national police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka.
”The suspects were all released after paying admission of guilt fines while others asked for time to pay the fines.
”We are not going to stop until we are satisfied that there is no more illegal mining in the country,” he added.
Among those arrested were dealers from neighbouring Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique caught up in a swoop on illegal traders at newly-discovered diamond fields in the eastern Zimbabwean rural service centre of Marange.
Police launched the blitz codenamed ”Chikorokoza Chapera” (The End of Illegal Gold Dealings) last month following concerns over rampant smuggling of precious stones and environmental degradation in mining areas.
They were collaborating with investigators from the central bank and officials from the national environmental management authority and the mines ministry.
”These illegal miners are causing damage to the environment as they leave pits and trenches when they move on to new areas and spill harmful chemicals such as cyanide and mercury,” Mandipaka said.
He said the safety of some schools in the Mashonaland west and central provinces had been jeopardised after gold panners burrowed under classrooms while some railway lines were also under threat of collapsing into tunnels.
”We also discovered that some registered miners were also engaging in illegal activities including channeling gold ore to the parallel market,” Mandipaka said.
In July, Zimbabwe’s central bank governor Gideon Gono urged the government to consider declaring mining areas as high security zones to curb siphoning of precious minerals.
Gold production in Zimbabwe last year dropped to 14 000kg from 21 300kg in 2004.
Gold is one of Zimbabwe’s major hard currency earners but the mining sector has been hamstrung by foreign exchange shortages which have prevented it from buying new equipment and supplies. – Sapa-AFP