By Stanslous Ruvengo
Uncontrolled small-scale and artisanal gold mining has wreaked severe environmental havoc across the Shashe and Mashava areas, leaving river systems heavily silted and surrounding forests degraded.
Some of the artisanal miners said they came from surrounding villages including Hwarare, Bwanya, and Chigume, while other said they were from districts such as Shurugwi, Chachacha, Bikita, Zaka, and Chiredzi.
Because near-surface gold deposits are concentrated around root systems, miners routinely uproot trees and dig sprawling networks of shallow pits, leaving behind landscapes that are vulnerable to heavy erosion.
Downstream, the Shashe River is now heavily silted, its natural channels choked by massive sand heaps deposited directly by mining activities along stream beds and claims.
Beyond physical destruction, toxic chemical pollution poses a growing threat to aquatic life and local water supplies. To process gold ore, artisanal miners crush the rock into powder before adding liquid mercury to form an amalgam. The mixture is then open-burnt to isolate pure gold, releasing into the atmosphere toxic mercury vapour that eventually settle into surrounding soils and natural water courses.
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The environmental crisis is accompanied by deteriorating social conditions in nearby settlements where local communities report rising rates of school dropouts, violent clashes among miners, and widespread sex work around the Bere and Balmain business centres.
Speaking to EnviroPress on condition of anonymity, several one artisanal miner pointed to climate-induced hardship in Chivi as the primary driver of the rush.
“Chivi is a drought-prone area, so there are no other reliable sources of income besides mining. We sometimes run into trouble with the police and the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), but we keep working,” said the miner.
