Freestones Mines is also accused of carrying out operations
on Dangamvura Mountain without an environment impact assessment (EIA)
certificate.
This was revealed in a full council meeting held in the
eastern border city.
Council acting engineering director Tonderai Sango said he
was surprised that the company started operations on Dangamvura Mountain
without their knowledge.
“The Chinese miner came and started to work on the mountain
without our permission in the process breaching the lease agreement we had with
them. I was actually surprised to hear that there were some people doing some
works on the mountain that is when we discovered that they there are the
Chinese,” he said.
Council spokesperson Sprein Mutiwi said: “What was
happening at the mountain was a breach of a lease agreement, but the miner has
since stopped operations.”
In a statement, Freestone Mine director Ruoxin Qi said: “Following numerous concerns regarding
our preparatory works for quarry mining activities at Dangamvura Mountain as
respectable and la- abiding firm, we found it prudent to shed more light
concerning the matter.
“We were issued with a lease agreement by the City of
Mutare in 2021 to carry out mining activities at stand number 13415 at
Dangamvura Mountain after responding to tender.
“For the record, we had not started the mining activities,
but we were just doing preparatory work as we waited for the EIA certificate.
It is unfortunate the preparatory works were misconstrued as quarry mining
activities which is not in the correct picture.” Newsday
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