ONE of the biggest lies ever told by our former colonial masters was that when the English Pioneers came to Zimbabwe, they were looking for a second ‘Rand’ which had lots of gold like Johannesburg.
However, so the lie went, they (Pioneers) were not able to find any meaningful quantities of gold and so out of desperation they decided to settle in the country and farm.
This is not the truth at all as we show below.
It is the aim of this article to show that to the contrary, the pioneer settlers found a lot of gold in Zimbabwe where they opened very rich mines, most of which are still being mined successfully today.
We shall highlight a few of those rich gold mines.
When the Pioneer Column was disbanded on September 27 1890, after the establishment of Fort Salisbury (Harare), prospectors spread out into Mashonaland and one of the first blocks pegged was the Jumbo Reef comprising 20 claims registered by Thomas Maddocks on October 27 1890.
Three days later, Charles Benjamin Lovemore, one of two Pioneer brothers, registered the Jumbo NE Extension, a block of 15 claims.
It was later further expanded to a huge gold mine.
The above mine was rich, attracting miners from all over the world.
Jumbo Gold Mining Company engaged a complete staff of American miners and mining specialists so much it has been said the mine was in American hands. After the Boer War ended, the mine saw a large number of Englishmen, Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians who were well represented in the labour force employed at the mine.
The attraction was gold, which was plentiful there.
And because there was a lot of gold in the mine itself, a 20-stamp (1050lb) mill was erected in May 1906 and in November 1907, a further 10-stamp were added to the mill.
Water was obtained from Marodzi River.
A railway line to Jumbo was constructed in 1911.
With the completion of construction work, Jumbo was now left with a settled population and was described as a lively place, the nucleus for a brilliant future for the whole district.
Throughout colonial times, Jumbo Mine produced tonnes of gold which the colonial masters sent to their mother country, Britain.
Over a century later, Jumbo is still producing lots of gold.
From Jumbo Mine, the railway line was extended north-eastwards to today’s towns of Tafuna and Shamva where big gold mines had been opened.
Tafuna was one of the richest gold mines during the Mutapa Empire era.
Here there were large ancient gold workings which attracted the colonial adventurers.
These English miners took over the old workings, expanded them and reaped a lot of rewards.
Large quantities of the precious metal were mined here as well making the Rhodesian colonialists very rich.
But the richest gold mine in this area turned out to be Shamva.
Here the prospectors discovered that the entire underbelly, of a mountain called Shamva was all gold.
Colonialists dug up the mountain from its underbelly getting out tonnes and tonnes of the precious metal resulting in the rest of the mountain falling down into the massive hole which had been created and leaving behind an ugly mountain without a head, but with a hideous crater.
Today there is still a lot of gold coming out of the Shamva area and the headless gold mountain of Shamva is there for all to see.
From Mashonaland Central we go to Midlands Province and our first port of call is Mvuma, on the Harare/Masvingo Highway.
From afar, we are greeted by the Falcon Gold Mine chimney in Mvuma itself which was constructed in 1913.
Gold was discovered at Mvuma in 1896 and by 1914, the mine had been sunk to 213 metres underground.
Because of the large quantities of gold at Mvuma that time which was mixed with some minerals like copper, the smelting plant was constructed in such a way that it became the only one of its kind in the world.
And Mvuma, being at one time the largest gold producer in the country, provided the colonial master with a treasure chest full of untold riches.
Talking about the largest gold producer in Zimbabwe, we come to Kwekwe to the world famous Globe and Phoenix Gold Mine which must rank as the mother of all gold mines in the country.
At its peak, it drew labourers from as far as China, Arabia and distant parts of Africa.
It was also described at one time as being the richest pound for pound gold mine in the world.
This mine beat all the Rand mines in terms of richness by a country mile.
The Globe and Phoenix mine is still being mined today, producing a lot of gold after over 120 years of exploitation by the British mining magnets of all kinds. Cecil John Rhodes had a house right at the mine which today forms part of the mining museum erected there.
It is therefore a big lie for the colonial master to say he did not find another Rand in Zimbabwe.
He surely did find another Rand in our beautiful country.
The colonial master opened many other mines.
For example, mines such as Penhalonga in Mutare, Masvingo, Bindura, Gwanda and Esigodini, among others.
The truth is, the English colonialists had come to Zimbabwe to find a new home. They had come to settle and in the process killed two birds with one stone.
They found themselves a home and a very rich second ‘Rand’.
Yes, there was another ‘Rand’ in Zimbabwe.
Gold is the second biggest export of this country, earning the second biggest percentage of our foreign currency after tobacco.
It is therefore vital that government should support the gold industry, especially the small-scale miners who happen to be the largest gold producers in the country.