Redwing: Gold mine or hell on earth

Redwing Mine, once celebrated as Zimbabwe’s jewel in gold wealth, now bears the weight of a tarnished legacy. The mine, boasting some of the richest gold deposits in the country, has become synonymous with tragedies due to safety lapses.

Since the official closure of the main underground mine in 2015, the surrounding gold claims become a haven for illegal artisanal miners.

Armed with rudimentary tools, their activities are not subjected to proper mining regulations and safety protocols by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.

Operating in the periphery of a once-booming underground gold mine, the artisanal miners operate in abandoned shafts and unstable tunnels, gambling their lives.

Last week, a mine shaft collapsed, trapping 15 miners deep underground. Initial investigations suggest an earth tremor.

However, both official and independent observers have raised concerns about a potential weakening of the ground due to the digging of the supporting pillars from previous workings by a Germany company.

While the observers have drawn a correlation between the shaft collapse and others in mines previously owned by German firms, the cause of this specific incident remains under investigation, Mines and Mining Development Minister Zhemu Soda said.

Fear and uncertainty gripped the families and the community as rescue efforts began.

For four days, hope dwindled with each passing hour. But in a remarkable turn of events, all 15 miners were brought to the surface breathing.

While the miners’ survival is a cause for celebration, the incident has reignited calls for stricter regulations and improved safety measures to prevent similar incidences in future.

“The most disturbing thing is that some of the tragedies go unreported,” a security officer at the mine told Business Weekly.

“Just last week, an artisanal miner was killed, broken into three pieces. While this incident’s magnitude may have attracted the attention of many, similar incidences are happening more often.”

Operations complexities

According to the miners, the complexities around the operations of the mine have made it difficult to enforcing regulations and holding anyone accountable for safety lapses.

Metallon, a UK registered mining firm owns Redwing, alongside other gold assets—How Mine, Shamva Mine and Mazowe Mine.

It has leased out some of its mining land to Betterbrands, a firm owned by prominent gold dealer, Scott Sakupwanya.

But Betterbrands is not directly involved in mining itself, but contracts individuals who then sponsor artisanal miners to carry out mining activities.

The similar arrangement is also used by Metallon. The situation makes it challenging to guarantee both safety protocol adherence and environmental protection.

Responsibility for safety protocols, environmental regulations and even basic oversight becomes blurred, leaving a gaping hole where accountability should stand.

“With oversight diluted and accountability fragmented, artisanal miners are left working in very dangerous conditions, often with minimal equipment and training, vulnerable to tragedies that may go unreported,” an official with Betterbrands said. The plight of the artisanal miners underscores the complex of artisanal mining, where the desperate hope for a better life intertwines with a deadly dance with danger.

“It’s episode after episode of horror but at the end of the day, we need to survive; we do have families to take care of so we are left with no option,” Terence Tsakani (not his real name) told Business Weekly. “Everything here is haphazard.

“Our sponsors are not worried about our safety neither the environmental damage that we are causing but only their profits.” Tsakani works with a group of five men.

After mining out the ore, they take it to the mill where the mineral is extracted from the ore. The sponsors get 50 percent of the total gold value and pay the artisanal miners.

Playing with fire

In response to the recent incident at Redwing, Minister Soda directed a provincial mining team to conduct a thorough review of their mining methods and provide recommendations to prevent future incidences.

“I am yet to get that report but obviously we will come up with measures informed by the report,” he said.

“But we have also discovered that some miners are being allocated land with old workings underneath.

So, they drill to gain access to the old workings…extract the pillars that are supporting the ground.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.

“We have seen similar incidences at other mines previously operated by German companies.”

Metallon and Bettebrands could not be reached despite repeated attempts to contact them.

Business Weekly also reached out to the Environmental Management Authority for comment on environmental concerns, but received no response after multiple attempts.

Redwing is a wholly owned subsidiary of Metallon, a private company that owns a vast portfolio of mineral assets in Zimbabwe consisting of four mining properties.

In October 2002, Metallon acquired a portfolio of mineral assets from a holding subsidiary of Lonmin plc, also known as Independence Mining. Redwing is located in Penhalonga, some 20 km north-northeast of Mutare, Manicaland Province.

According to a Competent Persons’ Report prepared in April 2020 by Golder Associates based in Australia, the mineral resource contains approximately 2,63 million ounces.

In 2020, South African geoscience firm RVN Group valued Redwing’s mineral and property assets at US$30 million.

Revival hopes still alive

Redwing was placed under corporate rescue in July 2020 because it was is financially distressed.

Former rescue practitioner, Knowledge Hofisi, left before the rescue plan was approved.

The first option of the plan proposes a quick restart with minimal upfront investment, leveraging on existing infrastructure, requiring periodic upgrades. This approach boasts a long lifespan exceeding 70 years but delivers a lower profit.

The mine will adopt this option initially, transitioning to option three within five years.

The option two demands hefty upfront investment but promises the highest profit.

However, its lower internal rate of return indicates greater risk. The ore body can also not sustain the targeted production level due to logistical and strategic limitations.

Then option three strikes a balance between investment and return. It requires moderate upfront spending, delivers strong profit, and offers an acceptable return on investment.

This option aligns with operational and strategic goals, making it the preferred long-term solution.

Underground gold production will resume from level one using conventional hand-held mining techniques before moving gradually to level three to benefit from economies of scale.

The mine will also employ modern techniques with diesel mechanised access and mining methods, which may be attainable through the implementation of a five-year strategy.

“I believe the mine holds potential for revival, but only through a concerted, multi-pronged effort that unites all stakeholders in restoring order and charting a course for commercially viable operations,” Hofisi, a veteran corporate rescue practitioner said.

While serving as the CRP, Hofisi said he was approached by several reputable local and foreign firms interested in purchasing the mine, but declined to reveal their names.

Business Weekly found the mine eerily deserted during their visit, with only a handful of individuals manning essential equipment like pumps and generators at the mine shafts. This followed a Government directive halting all mining activities at the site.

Disregard of mine worker safety

Mine workers have already raised concerns over failure by mining companies to observe high safety standards, accusing their employers of prioritising profits over their safety.

The workers pointed out “a culture of impunity”, where regulations are flouted and basic precautions ignored, leading to preventable tragedies. “Safety of workers was another concern,” Zimbabwe Diamond Allied Mine Workers Union (ZDAMWU) secretary general Justice Chinhema said. ZDAMWU represents nearly a third on mine workers.

“(In 2023), we witnessed fatality accidence and many lives were lost raising fears that this trend might continue if no immediate solutions are found,” said Chinhema.

“The country has seen the emerging of unscrupulous and corrupt investors who uses their dirty money to corrupt systems so as to operate bellow standards for profits without considering the safety or health and plight of workers. The union has been dealing with these issues and they are at various stages of litigation and in some cases engagement.”

According to a survey by the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe, 110 fatalities have been recorded in the country’s mines between January and September 2023, an increase from 106 accident recorded during the same period last year.

Large-scale mining operations accounted for 18 percent of the total number of accidents reported during the period under review.

Of these accidents, 80 percent occurred in underground operations. Illegal mining operations, on the other hand, contributed 22 percent to the total number of accidents, while small to medium mining operations were responsible for a staggering 60 percent.

These figures paint a grim picture of the safety situation in Zimbabwe’s mining sector. The high prevalence of accidents in small to medium mining operations is particularly concerning, given the informal and often unregulated nature of these activities.-ebusinessweekly