Thread by @Chinamasa_PA

Wednesday 2 March 2022 I was taken on a conducted tour of Connemara Gold Mine now owned by an indigenous corporate, ConneHouse Mining (Pvt) Ltd at Connemara Prison just outside Kwekwe on the road to Gweru.

To be precise it was a tour to appraise me of the progress the company is undertaking towards resuscitation of mining operations abandoned in 2014 by First Quantum & Chase Minerals. Currently there is no mining taking place.

What struck my eye as I arrived at the venue were mountains upon mountains of dumps. Connehouse Mining acquired the Southern Gold Claims which are part of the Midlands Gold Greenstone Belts from the previous owners,

The company also purchased proprietary information which included exploration, geological surveys, mining designs & processing. The company had to verify this information through further drilling & taking samples for tests at local & South African laboratories.

Connehouse Mining installed on site a Pilot Plant last year which test-operated from March to June & this was to assess the viability of the different ores, leach pads & the dumps.

On the basis of results received from the laboratories, the company took the business decision to proceed with the project & finalised the plant design & have prepared the land to install the new 30 000 tons of ore per month plant being manufactured to specifications in China.

Taking me around were the Mine Manager Cyprian Kachisa (who has been in the mining business since 1975), Shingirai Chimbanda the Project Metallurgist (in this business since 1986 with specialities in gold, nickel & chrome),

...Bamusi Isaac Newton, a Metallurgist with wide experience gained from working at various gold mines scattered all over Zimbabwe, Wonder Mutematsaka of EDELROD Consulting, Messrs Josphat Sachikonye & Moses Chingwena the Chairman & Vice Chairman respectively of Connehouse Mining,

... Commissioner General of Zimbabwe Prison & Correctional Services (ZPCS) Mr Chihobvu & his deputy Mr Mpofu. Sachikonye was CEO of Rio Tinto for years, so much so that one can safely say he spent his whole working life at Rio Tinto.

Mr Chingwena’s Company & a Company owned by ZPCS have between them a controlling interest in Connehouse Mining - a Public-Private Partnership so to speak. ZPCS are in it by virtue of the fact the gold claim sits on their land & were responsible for motivating the mining
venture.

As I moved along it was explained to me that the mining will be undertaken in 2 phases: the first phase about to start (but is to be completed with the importation of the 30 000 tons of ore per month plant) is to reap the low hanging fruits, leach & releach the dump material,

... develop 2 Leach Pads (38 metres high & each covering an area of 2.4 hectares & drip irrigate (known as heap leaching), open pit mining of fresh ore & blend it with dumps material. One of the ball mills for the first phase new plant is already in the country.

What, therefore, did I see or observe on my tour? For the record, I observed as I entered the mining compound that the entire mining area is under an electric fence (in fact there are warnings everywhere not to touch or get anywhere near it),

...there are junk trucks & material left behind by the previous owner, the land for installing the new plant has been prepared & is ready to receive the plant,

One leach pad is already completed together with 2 supporting tailings black plastic membrane (very special plastic imported from China and on which crushed ore material would be loaded for the cyanide leaching process) lined dams,

A second leach pad under preparation by an excavator with tailings dam complete, the test plant which was installed to test the viability of the different ores, another huge excavator at the entrance to the mining area & finally a gold bullion room under construction ...

(a gold bullion room is in effect a steel reinforced concrete structure resistant to explosives) & it houses the above 80% purified gold ready to be shipped to Fidelity Refiners for refining to above 99% purity (it is Fidelity that refines the gold to remove the base metals).

Spending about 3 hours in the company of mining experts I inevitably picked up technical jargon enough to impress the uninitiated.

I can converse glibly about cyanide, its ideal pH being between 10.5-12 & that it gets gaseous at below 10 pH not forgetting of course that it is extremely poisonous, about cyanide percolating through the crushed ore to the plastic, about Elution Plant, about Carbon Plant,

... about Carbon In Pulp, Carbon In Solution & Carbon In Leach, about the melting point of gold (I think I heard it correct at 1670 degrees Celsius & that to purify the gold ore to 80% & above you use borax, soda ash, nitre & silica,

& that in gold mining there are 2 basic ores namely oxides which occur at shallow levels & Sulfides which occur at deeper levels.

Take home points or observations from my tour: (a) it is evident that indigenous involvement & participation in serious gold mining is growing & increasing, perhaps in response to President ED Mnangagwa’s exhortation that NYIKA INO VAKWA NEVENE VAYO.

This is the third gold mine I have visited in as many months spearheaded by indigenous entrepreneurs; (b) serious gold mining or any mining for that matter requires considerable capital-mari svinu. Already USD2.5million has been sunk into this mining venture;

(c) from beginning to end the setting up of the mine is being done entirely by skilled black workers in every department, ample evidence of the depth of skills in this country;

(d) with each visit to a gold mine & my observation about the ubiquity of small scale artisanal miners I am becoming increasingly convinced that our national economy should be anchored on gold mining. As I think ZN have said before Gold is to Zimbabwe what Oil is to Saudi Arabia.

Those who have eyes let them ‘eye’ & those who have ‘ears ‘ let them ‘ear’. Nokuti hatigoni kurega kutaura zvatakaona nezvotakanzwa.
#NyikaInovakwaNeveneVayo
#LizweLiyakwaNgabanikaziBalo
#EDTheGameChanger