How I Started Mining

From the very onset, a disclaimer. I do not fancy myself as an expert in mining.

I am a Chemical Engineering graduate living in Zimbabwe, a country where much of the industry where my skills would have been highly sought after has shrunk.

So, instead of allowing my life to be tied down by a four-cornered piece of paper, I stepped out in hope.

The motivation

Mining in Zimbabwe to me came as a matter of necessity.

You can never truly understand how it feels to graduate and fail to secure employment until you have gone through it.

It is all-consuming and leaves you with the uneasy feeling of uncertainty. Try doing that with a family to feed and a young wife looking to you to provide.

So, unlike some people who might have been born into mining in Zimbabwe or who might have started out looking for a side hustle, mine was an attempt at an honest living.

In the articles that will follow, I will show you how my frame of mind when I started influenced some of my earlier decisions; some good and some not so good.

The decision to start mining in Zimbabwe

My brother is the first person who exposed me to mining.

We made our way one weekend from Harare to Lalapanzi to see some small operations at his chrome mine.

Lalapanzi is a small town in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe, about 40km from Gweru.

So, when the time came for me to mine, I naturally thought about what I had been exposed to.

I wonder what would have happened if I had seen a gold mine to begin with.

We discussed this plan with the missus and I went on an excursion.

I wanted to find out as much as I could before I started mining.

Stroke of luck

In my experience, you can only plan so far. Some things will happen when you decide to go after what you want.

I saw this principle come to life when I landed in Lalapanzi.

I had already contacted one of my cousins who stays in Gweru to show me around, as I knew nothing about the place.

When we got to my brother’s mine, I was happy to see one guy who was already working there.

We will call him John.

My brother had told me about him and we had previously talked on the phone. This guy had tonnes of experience as he formerly worked at Zimasco.

He showed me around and gave me a crash course into what small-scale chrome mining is.

The opportunity

We spent the day at the mine, going around and seeing what others were doing as well.

Yes, there were other people at the mine, but that’s a story for another day.

After we had seen all we needed to see, I informed John of my plans to mine and also inquired from him, which was the best avenue for me to take.

John told me that since I was a newbie, we could form a partnership and work on the project he had started.

I was thrilled to hear this and asked what my contribution would be.

The place which John was working on had lots of underground water. He needed a pump and some working capital to continue with operations.

I told him I would get back to him.

Capital

Armed with this information, I returned to Harare.

What I had seen made me lie awake at night pondering what could be.

I ran the numbers repeatedly in my head. It all seemed doable, all that was standing in my way was the money to buy the pump.

Almost 5 months passed with back-and-forth phone calls to John for reassurance.

I told him I was looking for the funds, but in 5 months I did not have a cent.

My missus was a civil servant, so after long deliberations, we came up with the crazy idea that we would apply for a loan and buy the required items; and that’s exactly what we did.

The beginning

It didn’t take long for the loan to come through.

Looking back, I would never advise anyone to fund a mining venture, which they know nothing about in this way.

But as I said earlier, there are certain pressures that drove me to make these decisions.

With my pump in one hand and just a few hundred dollars in my pocket, I made the long journey back to Gweru.

I knew full well that I would not be seeing my family for at least two weeks, but I was fine with that.

My joy was that finally things were moving in a positive direction and soon I would be able to fend for my family.