MUTARE Small-scale miners have urged the government to provide them with technical and other support to help them increase production.In an interview with The Zimbabwean on Tuesday last week, the chairman of Manicaland Small Scale Miners Development Association, John Mapisa, said small-scale miners lacked appropriate machinery to fully exploit claims, adding present methods of expropriation were laborious and time consuming.
There are now numerous indigenous players in the industry but most lack operational knowledge and are in no position to efficiently exploit their claims, he said
Small scale miners should receive assistance from government in the form of capital and equipment injections. The government through the ministry (of mines) should organise seminars and training on the best ways of mining, he added.
Mapisa said given the necessary assistance, small-scale miners had the potential to transform the countrys mining sector.
The sector needs massive government support just like what was being done to agriculture. Like any other sector mining also requires mechanisation and we await a mining mechanisation programme, he said.
He challenged government to launch an indigenisation fund to assist the miners.
Post published in: Economy