Illegal Miners Dispersed

25 May 2011

Maputo — The Mozambican police have dispersed a group of 500 illegal miners who were exploiting turmalines in Barue district, in the central province of Manica, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

According to the provincial director of mineral resources and energy, Olavo Deniasse, the turmaline deposit was discovered by a group of artisanal miners in the Nhansacera locality about two months ago.

It has been mined clandestinely since then, not only by Mozambicans, but also by many foreigners, particularly Nigerians.

Deniasse said that nobody was arrested when the police swooped on the miners last Thursday. The police did, however, confiscate the goods that the miners had left behind as they fled. These include a kilo of turmalines, 54,000 meticais (about 1,800 US dollars) in banknotes and eight mobile phones.

These are now in the possession of Deniasse’s office, and their owners can apply to the police to reclaim them.

But Deniasse warned that any foreign miners without documents proving the legality of their entry into Mozambique will be arrested and repatriated to their countries of origin. In addition to Nigeria, these include Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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