A TRADITIONAL leader from Mashonaland Central, Chief Chipadze has urged mining companies to take environmental conservation seriously by planting indigenous trees to counter deforestation and land degradation caused by mining activities.
The traditional leader was giving remarks at a sustainability campaign launch event, which was held by Freda Rebecca Gold Mine (FRGM) Friday where he commended efforts to rehabilitate the environment.
The campaign focuses on restoring and rebuilding sustainable communities through developmental and preservation of green spaces using native plants, dust suppression initiatives, and local infrastructure rehabilitation and these include planting trees and lawn.
“This tree planting exercise we are witnessing today is a great initiative as we are using our own indigenous trees which can survive in this environment.
“We wish and urge all mining companies to do the same to avoid environmental damages to the surrounding communities,” Chipadze said.
These initiatives are done at the Tailing Storage Facility (TSF), a mining structure used to store waste materials after mineral extraction which can cause significant damage to local communities if not managed properly.
TSFs can cause water and air pollution, soil erosion, dust pollution, landscape alteration, and potential disasters like dam failures, impacting ecosystems and human health.
This year alone, FRGM, a subsidiary of Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) has already planted over 10 000 trees under the theme “restoring nature and securing tomorrow”.
“Since the beginning of this year, FRGM has already planted more than 10 000 trees and we planted another 900 trees here today.
“We are replanting specifically indigenous trees but a few exotics which will be planted for very specific reasons like some of them will be able to restore the soil quality and assist the indigenous trees to grow as well,” added KMH CEO Trevor Barnard.
The campaign will be rolled out across all KMH mines in Zimbabwe.
“This will go to all our other operations, we cleared vegetation, we removed crop soil, we disturbed the natural environment, even though we can never completely restore this area to what it was before, that would have been an effort to restore the vegetation,” said FRGM managing director Patrick Shayawabaya.
