By SANFROSSA MANYINDA
SMALL-SCALE miners have urged Government to expedite actualisation of Grizzly Mining’s $10 million funding to reduce the struggle that most of them have been going through.
Emerald and Semi-Precious Stones Mining Association of Zambia (ESMAZ) president Victor Kalesha said small-scale miners were ready to demonstrate resilience, patience, discipline and acquire proper management and technical skills once they were provided with the needed support.
Mr Kalesha said Lufwanyama emerald restricted areas had great potential to contribute to the development of the country.
He said the government had a major role to play for the actualisation of the said development.
“We believe that Grizzly Mining is the only company that can revive the dormancy in the emerald sector because it is an African company and has experience of starting a mine from scratch.
“The problem has always been that emerald restricted areas lacked proper geological information, mining equipment and operating capital,” he said.
Mr Kalesha added that emerald mining was not as simple as it appeared but that it required technical know-how, proper management as well as discipline and proper mining equipment which Grizzly was willing to procure as soon as certain modalities were put in place.
He also said that there would be a lot of jobs created for the youth of Lufwanyama and more revenue going into government coffees should the pending matters surrounding Grizzly Mining and the government be quickly looked at.
The small-scale miners were advised to form cooperatives and acquire a single mining licence for them to be assisted with equipment among other things.
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