Council set to venture into mining

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THE BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) is exploring avenues of venturing into gold mining in areas under its jurisdiction after turning down a joint venture request from a local consortium.

THE BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) is exploring avenues of venturing into gold mining in areas under its jurisdiction after turning down a joint venture request from a local consortium. NQOBILE BHEBHE CHIEF REPORTER

Council has proposed to use its beer selling wing Ingwebu Breweries as a vehicle into the mining activities earmarked around Good Hope Farm and the Umguza Natural Game Reserve.

According to a council report, the finance department has been authorised to pay a $5 000 special grant application fee to the Mining Commission “to enable them to process a mining licence for the city”.

A council report titled “Proposal for joint venture in Gold Mining: Nkandabutope Investment”, council turned down a request from the company to enter into a joint venture.

Nkandabutope Investment was formed in July 2013 by a group of ex-combatants and the general public, and has a membership of about 40. In correspondence to council, Nkadabutope Investments wrote: “We have identified gold mining as a business venture which can yield profit in a short period and have obtained a prospectors licence.

“Our prospecting team has identified some gold deposits at Good Hope Farm and Umguza Natural Game Reserve. The discovery was through the historical background of the area.”

The group added that further assessment of the areas “could not be carried out as the BCC could not allow us entry into the areas before consulting other stakeholders”.

However, after studying the proposed joint venture, council resolved to spurn the initiative. The local authority resolved: “That the proposal by Nkandabutope Investments P/L for a joint venture with council on the exploration of gold reserves as outlined in the report above be not be acceded to in view of council’s own bid to register a mining grant over the area in question,” the council report says.

Based on the report, the municipality’s Research and Contract Management Unit is pursuing council’s bid to register a mining grant over Good Hope Farm and that “the process of authorising Ingwebu to carry out mining activities are at an advanced stage”.

“They would seek partners in the normal way . . . council would have the final say as to which partners they engage.

“ At this stage, the department was not ready to consider partnerships. It might be prudent for council to get partners who have years of experience in the mining sector and capacity to engage in gold mining,” the report reads.