PANNERS are reportedly sneaking into the closed Vumbachikwe Mine in Gwanda, Matabeleland South province, to extract gold, NewsDay has learnt.
One of the suspected gold panners was hit by a boulder inside the central shaft on Saturday last week, it has been established.
Matabeleland South police spokesperson Inspector Loveness Mangena confirmed the Saturday accident, adding that she was on her way to Harare.
She referred NewsDay to her deputy, Assistant Inspector Stanford Mguni for finer details.
Mguni, however, could not give the details of the accident, saying he has been out of office from Monday. The mine suspended operations in October 2022.
At the time it was involved in a dispute with its employees over outstanding salaries.
A worker, who resides at the mine compound, said panners had invaded the mine in search of the yellow metal.
“They are sneaking in after allegedly paying bribes to some security guards and some of the workers staying at the compound,” the worker said speaking on condition of anonymity.
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“On Saturday, we had an incident where one man who is not even a worker at the mine was hit by a boulder after he entered the central shaft.”
He said the police were called to rescue the gold panner.
It is alleged that one of the former mine employees was caught driving a hoist to take down gold panners into the shafts.
“There are quite a lot of things happening here and now people from outside the mine sneak in to pan for gold,” he said.
He alleged that former mine employees were stripping the mine of equipment and vandalising infrastructure.
Vumbachikwe Mine spokesperson Robert Mukondiwa on Monday said he was not at the mine when contacted for comment.
“The small-scale programme is a separate story as well, which I will arrange comments on, but all this is best if you come down and you get everything at once,” he said.
Recently, Mukondiwa said no operations had been affected by a basket of challenges facing the mine.
