Environmental watch group raises the alarm over use of poisonous chemicals in mining activities

Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) has called for responsible mining in the country to avoid destroying the environment.

The group monitors corporate state conduct in the extraction and beneficiation of natural resources in Southern Africa and assesses to what extent these activities uplift the economic conditions of the region’s communities.

Edward Lange, SARW Zambia Country Coordinator, noted that the application of poisonous substances like mercury in mineral leaching have started affecting agriculture production.

“Agriculture is being affected, there is need to build the capacity of artisanal and small-scale miners plying their trade in manganese, gold and others who are using substances like red mercury in mineral extraction,” Lange stated.

He said in an interview on Tuesday that the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development should be adequately funded to play its monitoring role.

Lange also said there was need for inter-Ministerial collaboration to curb mineral extraction practices that affect the environment as the country continues to discover minerals of different types.

“Underfunding of the Ministries of Mines and Green Economy and Environment is also a challenge, there is also to inter-ministerial relations,” he said.

Lange said the low contribution to the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) was also a source of concern as most mines claimed to be small scale miners that could not afford to contribute while resorting to chemical leaching methods which were dangerous.

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