The Sunday Mail
This is my story. I was a mukorokoza. I took a three-month voyage deep in the mountains of Chimanimani. My desire was to make that dollar by any means necessary, and that meant artisanal mining or chikorokoza, as you would like to call it, was no exception. My name is . . . well that doesn’t really matter now, does it?
My gang and I went in search of that precious metal, gold, and all the riches and prosperity that it brings, deep in the mountains of Chimanimani.
Leading the pack of rascals was a tall fellow nicknamed Giant, then came Yoyoyo, a fellow who made up for his shortcomings in the muscle department with street smarts, and, then of course, me.
They called me The Governor.
You see, chikorokoza resembles the liberation struggle in many ways. For starters, we spent most of our time in the bush, braving hostile weather conditions. And then one could not afford to trust anyone, for this reason, nicknames were used. Just the thought of getting too close to someone and then waking up to find them gone with your claim kept every one of us ever alert. Anything was possible in this “struggle”.
Today as I reflect, I realise just how much money I could have made back then had I been fiscally disciplined. Instead, I just waited for that one big jackpot.
What with my peers literally “striking gold”. Jabson and his crew hit a whopping kilogramme of the precious metal on three consecutive occasions, all in one month.
Although the conditions were tough, rain falling almost all the time, mist wafting over the mighty Chimanimani mountains and I sleeping in what we called “gunduru pi”, meaning sleeping with nothing covering one’s head, I hoped and prayed for the biggest pay day of my life.
Yes, makorokoza also pray!
But those tough weather conditions required me and my colleagues to undertake a 24-hour ale intoxication schedule, daily.
That is how the dark side of gold panning – prostitution and financial indiscipline – came into the matrix.
Getting hold of five grammes of gold, which is equivalent to US$225 on a daily basis, was very normal.
Though I am embarrassed to say it, spending that much daily also became very normal.
We also got accustomed to seeing people succumb to the bad weather conditions.
Prior to this, I had never seen people celebrating an individual’s demise. My fellow “miners” surprised me, they would celebrate if one of the illegal panners died.
“Nhasi mari inoita chete, pane munhu afa, tachekeresa!” they would say.
Devilish as it might sound, it had become the norm at Taka Farm in the heartland of Chimanimani.
Before setting base at this farm, I had spent two months at Mangwende Farm in Shurugwi and Ruvhure Mountain in Mashava, I had even been beyond the borders in Mozambique, plying the same trade.
Gold rushes and illegal panning had become my de facto occupation, just like many of the estimated million plus informal miners in the country.
However, although what we were doing was illegal, the Government had the audacity to send the country’s sole gold buyer, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, to cash in on the wave of the rush which was obtaining.
It became the case of legalising the illegal.
In today’s ghetto lingo, you would probably say, “Unoshaya kuti zvinhu zvacho zviri kumbofamba seyi!”
Informal gold panning is not business for the faint-hearted as all sorts of heinous incursions such as deaths, robberies, suppressions, plots and sub-plots are an everyday occurrence.
However, it is important to note that stereotype images of dirty, tattered clothes-clad and scary-looking people are not the real deal in this business!
They do not make money at all.
They are just pawns and fronts used as highways by cartels of smartly-dressed, powerful and mafia-type cliques that run informal gold mining in the country.
The sector continuously remains shunned by the authorities, but remains capable of being the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs.
The Government will never curb the rampant black-market obtaining in the gold mining industry unless it formalises it as envisaged by many.
Why the gold will never get to State coffers
The State is bereft of ideas on how to harness profits from this lucrative industry! As a result, the black market thrives by proxy.
While it acknowledges the immense potential of artisanal mining, Fidelity Printers and Refiners continues to pay a measly US$31 per gramme, whilst the mabhoziweri who control the black market, offer US$40 to US$45 per gramme, which is comparable to the world markets, standardised by the London Gold Bullion Market which fluctuates around US$41 plus.
Back to the basic gold panning business, an average panner makes around three to five points a day, putting into perspective the season and the topography of the area.
When you are dealing with virgin lands, the chances of gold output increases, but the same cannot be said when working on previously-mined land.
Also, during the rainy season, chances of increasing the output of alluvial gold mining are higher as the metal is exposed to the earth’s surface by the rains.
A point of gold is equivalent to a tenth of a gramme, meaning an average panner is capable of making plus or minus US$20 per day, which calculates to about US$600 a month.
Not bad for a profession which does not require any qualification, isn’t it?
However, with the country’s sole gold buyer, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, holding back their cash, the thriving black market and cross-border dealing of the yellow metal continue to thrive.
The future of informal mining
Alluvial mining of the precious metal remains the crown prince of the business as it requires a low capital base than reef mining for average panners.
However, the authorities could reap more financial benefits if they formalise the sector and aid mass reef mining by informal miners.
The country’s gold output might be doubled as the country is imbued with a lot of reef gold-carrying rocks, which remain scattered across the country.
Currently, when undertaking reef mining, a lot of enablers, which include mercury, an integral component of reef gold mining, are needed as much as the process is time-consuming and costly.
Mining tools such as drills, axe mattocks plus hard labour, which involves pounding and grinding of hard rocks, are all involved before mercury is added to the ore to trap the gold.
At black market rates, a spoon of mercury is equivalent to the cost of a gramme of gold which fluctuates between US$30 and US$40.
After that process, the gold amalgamate, which is the mixture of gold particles and mercury, has to be burnt into gold toast. This is also a long and laborious process.
If aided, there is no doubt this sector is very much capable of capacitating the country’s annual gold output.
