Redwing highlights need for better organisation in smallscale mining

EVERYONE is thankful that the 15 artisanal miners trapped underground last week at Redwing Mine near Penhalonga were rescued and a lot of credit must go to the rescue team of experts and technicians from the Government and two mines for clearing a path into the collapsed shaft and bringing the 15 to safety.

There appear to have been those who would have relished a bit more disaster, if some of the nonsense on social media was anything to go by, seemingly because a few deaths would have been another stick to use to beat the Government, but we assume that even in those circles this was a decidedly minority view. But still, some people like to use social media to hurt.

Several factors helped to avert a tragedy. For a start the miners, although self-employed, were working with the permission of the mine owner, Metallon Corporation, who had opened some galleries to artisanal miners after going through a tricky patch. But at the very least this must have helped raise the alarm very early, and when you have a mining accident the sooner rescue efforts start the better.

Metallon also promptly closed all other shafts, those it was mining itself and those it was allowing artisanal miners to use. Although several theories are floating around, no one knows for sure before any investigation just what was the cause, and for that reason activity at the mine needs to be suspended until the expert opinion is that it is safe to go back underground.

As is now routine, other mines offered assistance, with the team from Freda Rebecca joining the team formed from Metallon and the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. There is no law that mining companies have to step up in a disaster, but the culture in Zimbabwe is that you do, even when it is one of your competitors who needs help.

The 15 trapped miners showed a great deal of survival gumption as the roof of their shaft crashed in. They moved away fast, even though that took them deeper and further from the entrance into some flooded areas. But they managed to keep alive so that when the rescue teams broke through the debris there were miners to rescue, rather than bodies to recover.

There will now be a proper investigation to find the precise cause of the shaft collapse, or perhaps causes if it was a chain of problems. It is not always that easy to find a single cause and the whole gamut of potential causes needs to be examined.

We also need to start thinking about how we can both allow artisanal mining and yet keep such mining a lot safer. Almost all mining accidents involve these miners with far fewer disasters, potential disasters or perhaps bad practices in the formal mining sector. Yet there are possible more people working underground at any particular time in a formal environment.

Certainly the accident rate is far higher in informal sector operations, despite the skills that most artisanal miners possess.

The biggest single difference between the formal and informal sectors is that ever formal mine owner has written safety rules that must be obeyed. Every shift includes an experience shift leader, who has a very good idea of potential trouble and knows way to avoid this, or if it is likely that something bad in about to happen then has the authority to order a prompt evacuation.

In any case the shift leader has very wide authority to prevent some activity, or to give direct orders to anyone underground with them. This can prevent a lot of trouble, as well as being able to make the best decision of there is some sort of trouble.

While Metallon tried to lay down regulations for the artisanal miners working at Redwing, it was not directly supervising them, and that is the major difference between its own operations that those where it brings in others.

Perhaps we need to start thinking of solutions where some of the measures that are routine in a formal working environment are applied in the artisanal sector.

This might well involve training and licencing work group leaders, and making it clear that no one goes underground unless under supervision of such a person, in either the formal or informal sectors. While a mining company can use its disciplinary code to enforce the orders of a shift leader, the informal sector will need some other method, but that can be found.

This would at least help to end some dubious practices, such as thinning out the support pillars, mentioned as a possible cause of the Redwing accident, although that can only be confirmed after investigation and might just be speculation.

Other measures could also move across from the formal sector. When a formal shift goes to work there is normally someone who has had first aid training included, and first aid kits are available. Underground there are other supplies often in place, so that if a group is cut off they have food and water and even some way of communicating with the surface.

Again a bit of organisation could give these benefits to a far more informal group that was forced to work more closely together.

We would imagine it should be possible to form co-operative teams of artisanal miners, rather than just a group of individuals, and that mining licences and mining permissions would only be given to such better organised groups. Regulations could be laid down that had to be obeyed and there could be compulsory assessing of skills and experience levels.

This would also help the claim jumping that we hear about, although at Redwing those working underground were doing so with the full permission and knowledge of the mine owner. But there are others who burrow under schools and railway lines, or move onto other people’s mining claims without permission, and a bit more organisation in the informal sector could help.

Artisanal mining has brought so many benefits to so many people, allowing them to earn a reasonable living and allowing them to use their own skills and initiative to do so. It is largely positive, but it appears that some better degree of organisation and supervision would help to drastically improve safety.

We are sure the smallscale miners, the Mines Minsitry and others who are concerned and interested could work out systems that would retain the advantages but minimise the risks and minimise the rule breaking and other problems.

We may not be so lucky next time there is a shaft collapse.