Sabi Mine raided again

News
THE Deputy Sheriff pounced on the crippled Sabi Gold Mine and took away all scrap, including broken down heavy vehicles and machinery while the mine management is still trying to find ways of appeasing angry workers who have refused to go on unpaid leave.

THE Deputy Sheriff pounced on the crippled Sabi Gold Mine and took away all scrap, including broken down heavy vehicles and machinery while the mine management is still trying to find ways of appeasing angry workers who have refused to go on unpaid leave.

OWN CORRESPONDENT

An AVM 10-tonne lorry, 75-seater buses, plant machinery and other equipment were all collected by the Deputy Sheriff leaving the mine premises bare and deserted.

An official from the Messenger of Court said they were not done with the mine as its war with creditors rages on.

“The mine owes its creditors millions of dollars and we were instructed to collect all movable assets, hence we are doing so until they settle their differences with their creditors.

“We are going to collect everything and I mean everything that is movable,” the official who refused to be named said.

Sabi Mine Workers’ Union chairperson Mariko Mahaso said the recent development had led workers to lose any hope of the mine ever reopening. All negotiations between them (workers) and management had been disturbed.

“Workers’ anger has risen and they are now demanding all their dues without any negotiations since the mine has been left seemingly as an abandoned shaft,” Mahaso said.

A senior mine manager said the mine was now in need of an investor with a strong financial backing to replace all machinery that has been attached to clear a more than $3 million debt as well as workers’ salary arrears.

“The mine is now in an SOS position and there is nothing we can do as management except to ask the Mines ministry to look for an investor who is well established (financially) and who can manage to settle all these debts and buy new equipment to restart operations,” the manager said.

The mine has now been targeted by gold panners aware of poor security at the complex.