Miners feared dead in Zimbabwe

At least 23 illegal miners are trapped and feared dead in Zimbabwe after shafts and underground tunnels they were working in were flooded by water from a burst dam.

Zimbabwe has been working to regulate thousands of people who illegally dig for gold everywhere, including on farms and abandoned mines.

The state-owned daily Herald reported on Thursday that illegal miners in Battlefields, 175km west of Harare, had entered shafts on land owned by mining firm RioZim on Tuesday night in search of gold, but a dam wall nearby collapsed, flooding the shafts and tunnels.

“The number of people believed to have been trapped has reached 23. Chances of rescuing any survivors are very slim,” the paper quoted Fortunate Muzulu, the administrator for the area, as saying.

Muzulu, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday, told the Herald that government officials had asked for bigger pumps from platinum miner Zimplats to drain water to retrieve bodies.

RioZim spokesperson Wilson Gwatiringa said the company was not mining on the land where the miners were trapped and was assisting government officials with the rescue efforts.

Small-scale gold producers, including illegal miners, accounted for nearly 60% of the record 33 tons of gold produced in Zimbabwe in 2018, according to official data.