Illegal miners attack owners in Mumbwa
Illegal miners in Mumbwa have encroached in a mine belonging to Cupriferrus resources limited, attacked the company’s operations manager and three others.
The miners who are alleged to be Luiri gold mine workers seem to have taken advantage of a court ruling which declared them lawful owners of a mine which belonged to Bukomo mine, a ruling the Bukomo mine owners claimed to have been flawed.
When the operations manager for Cupriferrus resources limited Kelvin Vlamakis Marko went to the mining site to check on what was obtaining on the ground following rumors that there were people mining illegally, he found some of the illegal miners.
In the company of three employees for Cupriferrus resources limited, Marko asked one of the illegal miners he found at the entrance of the mining site who was in charge of operations but he refused to disclose the name.
Before Marko decided to leave, a man identified as Gerard who seemed to be in charge of operations came and one of the people with Marko overhead him talking to Mumbwa police officials on a phone asking if they were aware of Derrick’s presence on the site.
After the conversation, Gerard secretly started giving orders to his fellow illegal miners to block the way so that Marko and his people don’t find a way to leave the premises.
A few minutes later, more than 20 illegal miners had mobilized themselves with stones ready to stone Marko and his team.
As Marko started driving off, the illegal miners had already blocked the way with stones and logs in an attempt to keep them within the premises for unknown reasons.
The illegal miners threw stones as he drove off, resulting into the car getting damaged and two of the people who accompanied him getting injured.
Sources say that police are believed to have been conniving with police officers.
Marko went straight to Mumbwa police post where he reported what had happened.
Narrating to the media on what had transpired, Marko said the attack happened at a time when officers from the Ministry of Mines were in Mumbwa to investigate the alleged illegal mining in the area.
“Basically the visit today was, we came to confirm the report that we had received. People from Luiri gold company encroached on our mining site. So we came to confirm if this is true. And to our surprise we found these people have taken over our place, beating up our security guys who were there and they have actually started illegal mining at that place. So we decided to come and find out ourselves but to our surprise the reception that we received was bad. They started attacking us, damaging our vehicle, beating, stoning people that were standing with us. And most of our guys have been assaulted, the vehicle has equally been damaged, we have reported the matter to Mumbwa police station,”
When asked if that company tried to engage relevant authorities over the matter, Marko said “in fact it was happening at a time when ministry officials were in the area to verify on the same (illegal mining). And it so happened that these things were happening when ministry of mines officials were at work.”
He accused police officers in the area of rendering little support in the matter.
“When we received these reports, we had engaged the police who we were expecting that they can deal with the matter, but unfortunately this thing has been going on and there is little assistance from the police.”
Meanwhile, Marko said it was a mandate for every mine owner to protect his area and “we are putting up measures to protect our mining yard.”
Source: Daily Star Zambia
