Over the years the global trends in mining shifted,
some of the minerals that used to be of value have lost their value because of advancement
of new technology. Some minerals we have subdued due to research being done in
developing countries that have led to discovery of the health hazards
associated with them. Asbestos is one of those minerals that have been found to
be hazardous to health of humans. This issue have resulted in some of the mines
that used to be profitable downsizing as result of decline of the demand for
the product. In Zimbabwe we had one such mine which sustained the livelihood of
the people of the town the mine operated in.
According to Coakley .G.J (2004) pointed out that
asbestos was providing about 5.4% out of 804.3 million which was being
contributed by the mining sector of Zimbabwe. However the shift and banning of
the use of products in some countries began as early as 1998 and in 2003 South
Africa joined the block of countries that banned asbestos due to health hazard
it presented. Between the period of 2003 to 2004 Shabani Mashava Mine employed
about 3 500 people and was a major source of welfare in Zvishavane.
This is a case study of Shabani Mashava mine located
in Zvishavane and the relation to the global trend. In the early 2000 the
government of Zimbabwe placed the mine under judicial management which led to
the collapse of the operation of the entire organisation and resulting the
retrenchment of the mine workers. This had a negative impact of the welfare of
the people who live in Zvishavane that heavily depended on the organisation.
There was a lot of confrontation between the government and the shareholder.
The core business of the mine was mining of asbestos and exporting the minerals
to various countries.
The advert of tiles and zinc sheets reduced the market
share of asbestos which further worsened by the discovery of it harmful nature
to human health. Recently the community in Zvishavane aged the current
government to resuscitate the operations of the mine. This research is to
figure out whether it is worth it for the government of Zimbabwe and also
figure out whether there is still a viable market for the mineral. As we seek
to understand the impact the reopening of the mine to relation to the local and
global markets and the extent to which the mining of the mineral.
Joshi .T.K and Gupta .R.K(2004) said, “Aggressive
marketing of asbestos is continuing in these regions after shrinkage of the
market due to restrictions and bans imposed on the use of asbestos in many
developed regions where its use is down to insignificant levels." This was
in reference to developing countries that have embarked in major strive to keep
promoting the use of asbestos despite the fact that most countries from Europe and Some part of Asia have banned
the use of asbestos to protect their citizens and reduces the health bills. As
been outlined in the research the resuscitation of the Shabani Mashava Mine is not
really viable as it may lead to the advent of health problems in the town which
in the long run may prove costly for the country.
The United Kingdom have moved to ban the use of
asbestos in construction of building there are in the process of removing
asbestos that was already on buildings. This have a negative impact on the
mining operations as they will have to downsize business also with the
consideration that the use of asbestos in the UK is now indeed strict control.
United State of America in there geological survey conducted in 2017 shows that
the domestic use of asbestos products was banned in the country and have been
encouraging the use of alternative products that does not contain asbestos.
No comments:
Post a Comment