Instead, the sunset signifies the end of an era for his people because Dinde is destined to be destroyed to make way for a Chinese-owned coal mine and thermal power station project touted by the Zimbabwean government as a critical boost for its depleted power generation capacity.

In 2020 the government awarded Beifa Investments (Pvt) Limited, a subsidiary of the Jin An Group, licences to set up Beifa Coal Mine and Beifa Power Station in Dinde.

Chibuswa is one of many concerned that the coal mine will kill the village, and that community infrastructure, including church buildings, gardens, schools, clinic, dip-tanks and a hall, will be destroyed.

The coal project entails the eviction of at least 2,000 people, which Chibuswa says is a double slap because in the 1930s the same Nambya and Tonga people in Dinde today were forcibly evicted from Sinamatellata and Bumbusi areas to make way for the Hwange National Park.

“Today, we face the same circumstances that our grandfathers faced 90 years ago. We are being forced to abandon our ancestral lands for a company to make money. We thought the government would protect the poor from the rich. Instead, it uses the police to arrest us for refusing to let Beifa destroy us,” he said.

Chibuswa accused the local traditional leader of turning against the villagers after he was allegedly lavished with gifts that included a vehicle, a mini solar power plant, a borehole and a 2,000 litre-capacity water tank for his homestead. The chief has allegedly threatened to prosecute and banish anyone who resists the project.

“He wants us to accept the Beifa mine because it will bring development and employment opportunities, but we wonder how because we have already seen the pain and poverty caused by coal mines elsewhere in Hwange. We don’t want that here,” Chibuswa told Oxpeckers.

Opaque planning

One major sticking point is that the villagers say they were not consulted about the project. A lack of information about compensation for their land has also undermined confidence between the two parties. The villagers insist they will only leave after receiving the compensation.

In December 2019 Beifa Investments started a coal exploration programme which allegedly left coal sample holes around the homesteads and violated some gravesites. Stung by global condemnation that followed reports alleging the desecration of graves, Beifa Investments manager Zheng Zhou Qian dismissed the reports as misleading and defamatory.

“Beifa Investments (Pvt) Ltd has not evicted or shown any intention to evict anyone within the Dinde community. Beifa categorically denies ever desecrating any graves in the Dinde community. We note some images posted on the media showing holes drilled near graves (in Dinde). We wish to point out that the company did not sanction the drilling of any holes. As such, if there are any holes on the gravesites, that would be the work of other people unknown to the company,” Qian said.

Underground coal fires

Over a century of coal mining in Hwange has left the town in Matabeleland North sitting atop an intricate network of underground coal mining tunnels and abandoned works which still contain substantial amounts of coal that is not of commercial value. In these tunnels and deep into unexplored areas, underground coal seam fires have been raging unseen for decades.

Of late, these fires regularly burst to the surface as flames, or cause ground collapses forming sinkholes of burning coal which have maimed a number of residents and caused infrastructure damage around the town.

A former mine safety officer at the state-owned Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL), who declined to be named for personal safety reasons, told Oxpeckers that most of the fires in Hwange are concentrated in areas previously mined by the company.

Heavy blasting and tunnelling under the town has destabilised the ground and created fissures large enough to allow underground fires or gas explosions to reach the surface as explosions or mini-earthquakes, he said.

“Many suburbs were built on top of burning coal seams. I am afraid there won’t be much of Hwange to save when disaster strikes,” he said.

“You never know you are sitting on one until the ground caves in and drops you into a cauldron of hot ash, hot gases or smouldering coals. The temperature is high enough to reduce bones to ashes in seconds. No one says much about it, but many have lost lives and limbs to coal fires.”

Human settlements

According to a 2021 study commissioned by the Centre for Natural Resources Governance, a research and advocacy civil society organisation, underground coal seam fires are now prevalent in the mining concession owned by HCCL where there are human settlements for mine workers.

“Residents have noted that mine residue dumps found in the Number 2 and 3 areas of the HCCL [concession] are some of the most hazardous sites with raging underground coal seam fires. It was noted that loose dry materials that land on hot coal dumps quickly ignite fires that spread to coal seams. Fires travel underground from one coal seam to another and subsist in the ground for many years. Removal of overburden during mining brings the fires close to the ground,” states the report, titled Effects of coal seam fires and other environmental hazards in Hwange.

It points out that in some cases the overburden gives in to the heat, causing the ground to collapse.

“Studies have shown that the survivors of burn injuries often suffer from chronic pain and serious problems, pruritus and loss of strength,” it states. “Psychosocially, a certain proportion may develop depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after being discharged from hospital and this can go on for several years after the incident.”

In response to the results of independent research showing the effects of its underground coal fires on public health, HCCL managing director Charles Zinyemba issued a statement saying he was “very much alive” to the underground coal seam fires on its concessions.

“As a precautionary measure, public education campaigns [on underground coal seam fires] were, and will continue to be held in the schools and villages [around Hwange],” he said.

“Tribal elders were engaged to disseminate this information to the villagers, and communities living in close proximity to affected areas will continue to be informed of temporary measures to avoid risks, such road diversions and placement of signages in affected areas. In addition, HCCL has invested in a drone that has a camera for security and the identification of underground fires,” Zinyemba said.

A dead river

Elsewhere in Hwange, the fears of the Dinde villagers are already being felt by people living along the Deka River, which runs through the mining town. The river transports toxic mineral effluent from at least seven coal miners and thermal power producers.

Villagers who spoke to Oxpeckers said due to fears of poisoning, people do not drink water from the river but are surviving on boreholes drilled by a local NGO.

“The waters of the Deka changed colour to green about 20 years ago, and it has remained like that because of pollution,” said a local headman, Cassius Sinampande.

“We Tongas call ourselves ‘the people of the river’ because fishing is our tradition. But we don’t fish anymore because toxic mine pollutants killed the fish. The water kills people. It kills livestock. Anything watered from the Deka dies.”

In Hwange town, residents are grappling with continuous noise and air pollution, environmental degradation and water contamination by effluents from the coal mines and power stations. The Hwange Local Board also complains of widespread local road network destruction by heavy trucks that deliver coal and supplies to and from the mines. The residents said heavy blasting by coal mines was damaging their houses, with most suffering cracks each time blasting happens.

Acid mine drainage

A study published by Frontiers For Environmental Science in December 2021 found acid mine drainage and other pollutants in the Deka River were causing serious environmental problems and had potentially disastrous public health consequences.

“Based on the data of the community-based monitoring, we showed that coal mining and combustion are degrading the water quality of the Deka River. The main effluent channel Sikabala that joins Deka River carries along a variety of metals that relate to those found in very high concentrations at the point sources of acid mine drainage (AMD),” the report states.

“These AMD sources are mining legacies from former underground mines. Our findings show that AMD formation is mainly responsible for critical loads of Mn2+ [manganese] and other bivalent transition metals in the river downstream of the inlet of the main effluent channel Sikabala.”

The study also recorded cases of illegal pumping of pit water by miners, which violates environmental emission standards. They concluded that the acidic pit lakes in the Hwange area will present high risks for the Deka’s ecosystem as long as mines continue to neglect the environmental impacts of their actions.

“Pollutants are most probably also entering the river system via the atmosphere, as high arsenic concentrations during the rainy season suggest. A potential source of these emissions is the thermal power plants,” it states.

Since the Deka River is a source of drinking water, pollutants such as manganese and to a lesser degree nickel and arsenic are of concern for human health, the researchers concluded. “These elements regularly exceed drinking water standards, with manganese being the most drastic case, surpassing standards around 70 fold.”

The researchers recommended the Zimbabwe government should commission a public health study across the Hwange District to determine potential public health effects of high manganese exposure.

Oscar Nkala is a Zimbabwe-based Oxpeckers Associate who works on transnational investigations across borders in sub-Saharan Africa. This investigation is part of the Oxpeckers investigative series titled ‘The human cost of energy in Africa’.

It is an exhausting routine that often gets messy depending on the mood of the passengers. But their moods no longer worry him because business has been good since he replaced his old petrol-powered rickshaw with the “Silent Predator”, an electric battery model that has changed his fortunes.

He named his new motorcycle the Silent Predator because the battery-powered engine makes no noise and releases no exhaust fumes as it moves through the narrow streets of Antananarivo, capital city of the island country off the south-eastern coast of Africa.

It is proof that the transition from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to more climate-friendly options is already happening on the roads of Madagascar. Ratokoriamanana said he was unaware of the bigger role his new taxi plays in the global energy transition to reduce carbon emissions but is thankful that the change has boosted his daily earnings.

“With the old machine, I used up to 20 000 ariary to buy fuel, which was half of my earnings. It was a huge drain because I was feeding the family and fuelling the motorbike from the same pocket. I make more now because I have no more fuel costs,” Rakotoriamanana said.

However, the benefits of the energy transition are yet to be felt beyond Antananarivo. The global switch to low-carbon energy is mineral intensive, and Madagascar has huge deposits of more than 20 rare earth elements, as well as various minerals in demand for the transition.

Most of its big mines are located deep in the rural areas, where communities are witnessing a flood of investors seeking long-term mining concessions and licences but are mostly in the dark about development plans. This silence has created social problems as locals, struggling with land dispossession, loss of livelihoods and environmental impacts, rise to resist the expansion of mining projects.

Toliara Sands

One of mining projects that has riled indigenous people and environmental defenders alike is the Base Toliara mineral sands mine in south-west Madagascar, which will extract high-grade ilmenite, zircon and monazite. Mineral sands are increasingly being used in energy transition infrastructure.

Australian company Base Resources owned the mine until its complete acquisition by US-based uranium miner Energy Fuels in April 2024. In a notice to shareholders in July, Base Resources said the mine would re-open shortly after being awarded a mining licence and environmental certificates.

The mine has been in limbo since 2018 due to local opposition and community protests over its environmental and social impacts. Residents of Toliara have recently joined the indigenous land rights organisation Collectif Pour la Defense des Terres Malgaches (Collective for the Defence of Malagasy Lands) to oppose the imminent launch of the mineral sands project.

In a statement released on 20 July, the collective accused the government of rushing to start mining while keeping local communities ignorant about the increased risks and dangers they will face.

The organisation said the project-affected people must be informed that the original mining plan has been expanded to include rare earth minerals and to produce uranium on site throughout the lifespan of the mine.

“The acquisition of Base Resources by Energy Fuels radically transforms the activities at Base Toliara. In addition to the extraction of ilmenite, zircon and rutile, as per the previous plan, rare earths and significant quantities of uranium will be produced at low cost,” the collective said in a statement issued on 29 July.

“The Malagasy government should be aware of the serious risks to the health of local communities from the exploitation of monazite, which is known for its high radioactivity. 

“Not to mention the harmful public health effects of zircon, which have been the subject of several warnings from scientists and organisations. This increase in risks must not remain unknown to the population, and it is up to the government to inform them of it quickly,” it said.

Paper trail

Energy Fuels had not responded to requests for details regarding the types of metals and industrial activities planned for Base Toliara at the time of publication. However, a review of paper trail evidence suggests that the company is under pressure to start mining operations in Madagascar because its existing mineral base sands mine in Kwale County, Kenya, is closing down after exhausting the mineral reserve.

A statement issued by Base Resources to shareholders in July recorded that Madagascar’s government had agreed to expand the business plan at Base Toliara from the extraction of zircon, ilmenite, monazite and rutile to include industrial production of uranium on site following its acquisition by Energy Fuels.

“In-principle agreement on key fiscal terms that will apply to the whole Toliara Project (ie both minerals sands and monazite) are considered to have been reached with the government of Madagascar, although these remain subject to entry of binding documentation. Engagement with the government is now focused on finalising the binding [memorandum of understanding] that will give effect to the in-principle agreement and other key matters to facilitate timely project progression,” read the statement.

Base Resources said following the acquisition by Energy Fuels on 22 April, “significant progress was made towards satisfying the conditions precedent and the implementation of the company’s proposed combination with Energy Fuels to create a global leader in the critical minerals sector with a focus on rare earth elements, heavy mineral sand and uranium production”. 

“The remaining regulatory approval conditions precedent to implementation of the proposed combination are applications to Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board and the Malagasy Competition Council, each of which remain under review by the relevant regulatory body.”

Mining code

Secretary general of the Madagascan Ministry of Mines and Strategic Resources, Henri Razananiriana, said in response to questions that the country has adopted a new code making it mandatory for mining companies to respect human rights in their operations.

“Our failure to consider the human rights dimension in crafting mining laws has created serious problems in the extractives sector,” he said.

The government is working to address all problems relating to resettlement and compensation of local communities, as well as addressing issues of mining impacts and benefits-sharing with local communities, Razananiriana added.

To address issues of benefit-sharing between investors and locals, Razananiriana said Madagascar had recently adopted a national strategy for corporate social responsibility. It would be submitted for implementation after inputs from civil society organisations.

“The strategy aims to establish corporate social responsibility as a competitiveness tool by promoting the contribution of companies to the preservation of natural resources while creating added value for local communities and the country,” he said.

String of controversies

These issues have forced some mining-affected communities to seek redress in the British high court because it has jurisdiction over matters concerning British companies operating around the world.

At Taolagnaro in south-eastern Madagascar, a subsidiary of British mining conglomerate Rio Tinto called QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) operates Mandena mine, which has been producing zircon, ilmenite, uranium and rutile since 2009. Rio Tinto holds an 80% share in the mine and the government of Madagascar holds the remaining 20%.

QMM has been embroiled in a string of controversies ranging from the disputed eviction of locals to make way for the mine in 2013 to ongoing legal battles over allegations that Mandena mine was the source of uranium waste water which killed fish and other aquatic creatures on Lake Basaroy in March 2022. Mandena is on the shores of Lake Basaroy and uses it as a drain pond for excess water from the uranium tailings dump.

Emmanuel Rahimatra is one of the residents who in April 2024 sued Rio Tinto QMM over unfair eviction and under-compensation after being evicted to make way for the Mandena mine.

“Through the courts, we wanted the government to know that we did not leave our lands and ancestral lands willingly,” Rahimatra said. “Secondly, we wanted to express our feelings that the compensation of between 100 and 400 ariary per square metre paid to those who were evicted to make way for the mine was far less than the value of the land and properties lost.

“The High Court ruled against us in 2013, but the grievances have multiplied because QMM has since destroyed the forests, and uranium contamination has poisoned the fishing grounds and killed most of the fish resources. We were deprived of a living and there is no one to turn to since the courts work for the government, which is one of the two investors in the mine,” he said.

British high court

In April, 64 residents of the Anosy region in Fort Dauphin filed a lawsuit in the British high court alleging that the Mandena mine had destroyed their livelihoods by contaminating Lake Basaroy and waterways around Lake Ambavarano with toxic levels of uranium and lead.

The lawsuit cited a study commissioned by British law firm Leigh Day, on behalf of the litigants, which states that blood tests carried out on people around Fort Dauphin showed the majority had elevated levels of lead and uranium poisoning exceeding the minimum standards set by the World Health Organisation.

The residents said up to 15 000 people who live around, and rely on, the lakes and waterways for drinking water and livelihood could be affected. Among other effects, lead poisoning can cause permanent brain damage to young children. High lead and uranium exposure also increases the risk of cancer and kidney damage.

Leigh Day lead partner Paul Dowling said it was shocking that while Rio Tinto continues to extract profits from its mines in Madagascar, it is impoverishing the local communities and forcing them to consume uranium and lead-contaminated water. He said the residents are seeking accountability, justice and redress for the environmental damage and health risks arising from the operations of the Mandena mine.

Although the matter is yet to be heard, Rio Tinto has dismissed the lawsuit as baseless. Sinead Kaufman, chief executive of Rio Tinto’s minerals division, said in papers the company has no case to answer. She cited the negative findings of an independent investigation commissioned by the company to determine whether the fish deaths at Lake Basaroy were caused by uranium contamination or other factors.

“The report … said it cannot find any direct evidence on any heavy metals contamination that caused the fish deaths but also it cannot find any conclusion,” Kauffman said.

QMM has since embarked on a series of corporate social responsibility programmes but local communities are still concerned about loss of livelihoods and lack of communication, said Dowling.

“Due to insufficient open and balanced dialogue between QMM and local stakeholders, there is a lack of awareness of the social and environmental risks and balanced view of benefits. Affected communities must be partners in decisions that affect them and consulted on a regular basis to raise their awareness about the actual risks and benefits, and identify best mechanisms for conflict resolution, compromise or mitigating negative impacts,” he said.

Oscar Nkala is a Zimbabwe-based Oxpeckers Associate who works on transnational investigations across borders in sub-Saharan Africa. This investigation is part of the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker series titled ‘The human cost of energy in Africa’. 

Find more Oxpeckers investigations into transition minerals here.

It is estimated the sector will reach $6.6 billion in value in Tanzania by 2027, according to recent market analysis by the United States International Trade Administration.

“In Tanzania, [there’s] a new dawn that’s ready to fuel the global energy transition … the demand for rare earth elements and critical minerals is ever-increasing. Working to meet this demand, mineral exploration in several parts of Tanzania has increased substantially in recent years,” the organisation stated.

The country’s natural resources include gold, copper, silver, nickel, lead, cobalt, graphite, manganese, uranium and 24 rare earth elements. It is also the only source of tanzanite gemstones, found in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Its transition minerals include an estimated 70 million tonnes of graphite, commonly used in electrodes for batteries and fuel cells, in supercapacitors for energy storage, in nuclear reactors and solar panels. At least 1.52 million tonnes of nickel ore have been confirmed in ongoing exploration works in the Kagera region in the north-west. Although no quantity estimates have been given yet for lithium, it occurs in abundance.

Most of the new mining projects are still at exploration and development stage, but mining policy analysts have already warned of the dangers ahead.

“While critical minerals offer opportunities, there are risks for producers like Tanzania,” said Moses Kulaba ,of the Governance Analysis Centre at the Natural Resources and Governance Institute based in Dar es Salaam. “These include policy gaps, supply chain governance risks, the geopolitics of consumer nations as well as investment and revenue management risks.”

Dark side

A research paper published by the African Climate Foundation in 2023 warned the Tanzanian government to amend existing mining regulations to capitalise on critical transition minerals investments.

“While critical minerals developments have not delivered transformation yet in Africa, the dark side of the energy transition has become visible with the pollution of soils, air, water contamination, toxic residuals, intensive consumption of water and power, workplace and environmental risks, child labour, sexual abuse, corruption and armed conflict in the mining areas. These problems are doomed to become unsustainable given the increasing pressure on critical minerals extraction from major industrialised economies,” it states.

An assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) of the opportunities and risks that come with critical minerals exploitation in Tanzania and other African countries highlights the high environmental, social, economic, geopolitical costs for producer countries: “While the growth of mineral supply value chains plays a vital role in the clean energy transition, the production and processing of these minerals can lead to a myriad of negative consequences.

“These include significant greenhouse gas emissions from energy-intensive mining and processing activities, environmental impacts such as biodiversity loss and pollution as well as social impacts including human rights abuses, child labour and negatively impacting on indigenous people’s rights.”

Investors in Tanzania’s new mining sector also face challenges arising from multiple laws governing the mining business, the UNEP added. Among other remedies, Tanzania should streamline the issuing of mining permits, ensure regulatory clarity and promote transparent governance in the critical minerals sector.

Geopolitical issue

Critical transition minerals investments have become a geopolitical issue, with the United States attempting to counter Chinese dominance of the sector. US companies have taken the lead in investing in lithium prospecting, and the biggest lithium concessions holders in Tanzania are US companies Titan Lithium and C-Growth.

Tom Sheehy, a research fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, said the US expects Africa to provide some of the 50 critical minerals needed to support technological innovations in the US.

“Critical minerals development in Africa impacts the US at the level of peace and security. Much of the world is coming to Africa in search of critical minerals, but the question is: will these minerals be developed in a way that contributes to African economic development and promote social stability? Or, as we have often seen, will these resources be developed in a destructive and exploitative way?” he said.

“We want to encourage critical mining partnerships that are mutually beneficial with African countries. This means ensuring that critical minerals do not fuel conflict.”

Sheehy said the US will continue to invest in Africa’s critical minerals sector in a responsible way. “Transparency and the rule of law will be critical for African countries to attract investments. They must honour investment rules by adhering to contracts and resisting arbitrary rulings.

“The US and its Western partners will respond to investment opportunities in Africa, but only if there is sufficient confidence in the business climate. If not, there are many competing investment destinations to check globally,” he said.

Government strategy

Tanzania’s Mines and Minerals Minister Anthony Mavunde said the government is crafting a strategy to guide investments in the critical minerals sector. The government has plans to expand the mining industry to ensure that all Tanzanians benefit, he added.

“Starting in July 2024, we will conduct an in-depth geological survey in two blocks with a total area of 163,574 square kilometres. This will lead to the establishment of several more mines, and significantly open up new investment opportunities across the mining sector,” Mavunde said.

The government is also promoting new nickel, lithium and graphite refineries in-country to promote value addition and create more jobs down the mineral value chain. A new strategy to regulate artisanal mining will be unveiled as part of broad measures to improve working conditions for artisanal and small-scale miners, Mavunde said.

The government is working on a critical minerals policy that will ensure reliable supplies, stimulate further exploration and foster mining innovation while championing the adoption of sustainable and responsible mining practices, he said.

“Tanzania is re-defining the script, not with empty promises but with ground-breaking action which offers transformative partnerships. Our vision is not to just dig up the minerals, we want to ignite the engines of prosperity.”

He said the government is enacting new laws to protect artisanal and small-scale miners from being prejudiced by big mining companies in disputes over mining licences. The regulations are meant to address frequent conflicts arising from mining licence ownership disputes as big mining companies are accused of abusing agreements made with their small-scale counterparts.

The government is also working hard to prevent illegal mining and disrupt the operations of several transnational theft and smuggling syndicates which have established themselves in mining sites in the Lake Victoria basin, he added.

North Mara

Analysts warned that mining for transition minerals needs to avoid the long-running problems associated with the North Mara Gold Mine in north-western Tanzania, which is surrounded by five poverty-stricken villages situated on land ravaged by opencast artisanal mining.

In operation since 1930, the North Mara mine has changed ownership many times, the most recent being its acquisition in September 2019 by Canadian company Barrick Gold Corporation, part of the London Stock Exchange-listed Acacia Mining. The mine is now operated by Twiga Minerals, a joint venture in which Barrick Gold controls 84% and the Tanzanian government controls 16% free carried shares.

Gold is not the only mineral attracting investor and artisanal miner interest to the North Mara region. Its mineral resources include copper, cobalt, silver, chalcopyrite, pyrite, quartz and various chlorite group gemstones.

Human rights and social justice issues have been haunting the North Mara and Bulyanhulu mine, also owned by Barrick, since conflicts erupted over expansion into community lands early in the 1990s.

Most residents in the surrounding villages are resentful of the North Mara mine, stemming from what they view as their forceful eviction from their lands and artisanal gold mining sites to accommodate the mine’s expansion between December 2019 and September 2023. Those who spoke to Oxpeckers in Kewanja village said animosity towards the mine is exacerbated by abuse committed by police stationed at the mine and by government officials.

“The problems revolve around the bad relationship between the mine and the communities. There is no trust. Instead, there is mutual suspicion and deep-seated resentment which creates a typical ‘us and them’ relationship,” said Joshua Matombo, a resident of Kewanja village.

“We see the North Mara mine as a profit-driven actor who turned our lives upside down with the help of the government, which collects the taxes. The mine treats us like aliens on our own land. They call us trespassers and illegal miners, which is an insult because we inherited these gold mines from our forefathers.”

In response to concerns about these issues recently raised by Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Barrick’s chief executive Mark Bristow said allegations of mine complicity in police brutality, use of the Tanzanian police as a private militia and human rights abuses linked to the evictions were baseless. The company has requested the government and Tanzania’s Human Rights Commission to investigate the allegations, he said.

Artisanal mining

Artisanal mining for both critical and non-critical minerals poses headaches for mining companies and regulatory challenges for the government.

In the north-western regions of Geita, Shinyanga and Kigoma, artisanal miners produce gold, copper, silver and quartzite gems. Local residents lament the environmental impacts of these mining activities, which include air and dust pollution as well as the discharge of toxic fumes and chemical residues into the atmosphere.

“In Geita, deforestation, mercury and cyanide pollution, dust pollution, noise pollution and chemical contamination of soils are the main problems caused by mining,” said a health technician who requested anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Alpha Nyatomba is the director of Population and Development Initiatives, an NGO that aims to promote land and environmental rights in communities affected by the mining in north-western Tanzania. He said communities living in mining areas face problems of water scarcity, deforestation and chemical contamination of water sources.

The gold mining and processing factories around Geita dump at least 27kg of mercury a year into the local rivers and environment, according to a study conducted by the National Environmental Management Commission, a government body established to undertake environmental enforcement and awareness raising in Tanzania.

The study found at least five major mines in the area emit between 7kg and 14kg of toxic atmospheric gases annually from amalgamation burning of gold and other mineral purification processes.

At least 17% of the Geita Forest Reserve was destroyed annually to make way for mining between 2016 and 2020, the study found. The forest clearance process included the destruction of vital habitats and the disruption of natural ecosystems key to the mitigation of climate change impacts.

Chemical pollution

Recent assessments of chemical pollution linked to artisanal and small-scale mining in the nearby Chunya District showed its rivers contained 10 times more mercury than the safe limits prescribed by the World Health Organisation. A 2020 study into the public health impacts of mining in Metau district recorded a 20% increase in respiratory illnesses that were directly linked to air pollution from mining activities.

The most widespread environmental impacts of mining in north-western Tanzania include water pollution, deforestation and land degradation. The study said a lot of work remains to be done to reform, harmonise and enforce Tanzania’s fractured legal and policy frameworks guiding the operation and regulation of the sector.

“At least 10 different state institutions are involved in oversight and together visit 94% of the artisanal mining and processing sites in north-western Tanzania. They perform various inspections on safety, environment and health, collect taxes, royalties and fees, provide training and assistance, collect data, take care of security and law enforcement and mediate conflicts.

“Yet cooperation and information exchange among these state actors remain ad hoc, as there exists no central coordination. Consequently, many sites are visited occasionally for one function or without knowledge of prior practices or inspections,” says the report.

“Structuring and systematising this coordination with a clarified division of responsibilities and channels of communication could increase the frequency, efficiency and impact of oversight functions.”

Oscar Nkala is a Zimbabwe-based Oxpeckers Associate who works on transnational investigations across borders in sub-Saharan Africa. This investigation is part of the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker series titled ‘The human cost of energy in Africa’. 

Find the #PowerTracker tool and more investigations here.

The MoU challenged the dominance of China, South Africa, Hong Kong, Mauritius and India as the traditional consumers of Zambian copper, gold, lithium, cobalt and manganese exports. It targeted large volumes of critical transition metals that occur in the Katanga Copperbelt, a mineral-rich strip stretching from Lualaba Province in the south-eastern DRC to the Luapula province in northern Zambia.

According to the US state department, the MOU aimed to “facilitate the development of an integrated value chain for the production of electric vehicle batteries in the DRC and Zambia, ranging from raw material extraction, to processing, manufacturing and assembly”.

Transition minerals

The growing demand for transition minerals in the region has inspired a surge in exploration for and mining of copper, cobalt and manganese in Zambia. However, most of the mining activities are unsustainable and inflict costs on local communities while bringing them no tangible benefits, said Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda, executive director of Lusaka-based NGO Panos Institute Southern Africa.

“Despite the existence of various policies and regulations to ensure mining is done in a sustainable manner which takes issues of public safety, public health and environmental protection into account, there are many loopholes which allow the mining industry to abuse communities and degrade the environment,” he said. “There is widespread air pollution, water pollution and environmental degradation in all mining areas in Zambia. These activities impact on the health and livelihoods of people in mining areas.”

Although Zambia has legal and policy frameworks designed to safeguard land ownership rights and security of tenure, these policies are rendered ineffective by the Mines and Minerals Development Act, which enables mining to take precedence over all other land uses when minerals are discovered, Sibanda said.

This provision renders local communities vulnerable to evictions and other forms of human rights abuses by mining licence holders. Sibanda said most of the human rights violations common in mining areas are linked to high poverty levels which force people to give up their land. It also leaves them with no choice except to take up hard labour mining jobs for very little or no pay.

“High levels of poverty in the mineral-rich areas suggest that Zambians are not benefiting from the growth of the mining industry yet. The law makes it mandatory for mining companies to provide compensation to people affected by mining, but there are loopholes in enforcement which have resulted in very limited, if not non-realisation of the intended objectives.”

Manganese curse

Oxpeckers visited Luapula Province in northern Zambia to gauge the effects of the pursuit of energy transition minerals on the local people and environment. Luapula is rich in natural as well as mineral resources but despite its potential to reap economic benefits from a combination of tourism and mining investments, the province remains grossly under-developed with 81.1% of its population living in poverty, according to the Bank of Zambia.

Nsama Musonda Kearns, director of Care for Nature Zambia, an NGO working to promote environmental conservation and sustainable development in the country, said locals accuse companies mining manganese of committing human rights abuses such as illegal and uncompensated evictions, forced labour and environmental degradation.

Manganese is one of the main energy transition minerals required for the manufacture of electric batteries. According to the Luapula provincial administration website, the province “has enormous mineralisation of manganese ore deposits” and aimed to set up a manganese refining plant to create employment for locals.

But Kearns said Luapula has not realised any benefits from decades of mining for manganese: “The communities are not benefiting from mining, yet all the rivers and streams in the Mansa River catchment are polluted with mine effluent. The pollution affects thousands of people downstream who depend on these rivers to meet daily water needs for their households.

“Luapula is facing the curse side of the mining boom as host communities fight land grabs and environmental injustices that include air pollution, water pollution, land degradation, child labour and low wages in return for hard labour. They also face dilapidation of roads by heavy mining trucks. All this causes loss of revenues that would otherwise contribute to poverty reduction and development in Luapula,” she said.

In October 2023 Care for Nature Zambia established the Women’s Land Rights and Climate Justice Project to help women fight evictions, land degradation and environmental pollution by mining companies. It also seeks to strengthen the women’s collective capacity to advocate for decent jobs in the mining sector.

“The project will help the women protect their communities by enabling them to hold mining companies to account for the damage caused by mining. It seeks to promote women’s participation in local mining policy and decision-making. We also hope that working with women in mining-host communities will boost our campaign to stamp out child labour from the Zambian mineral value chain,” Musonda Kearns said.

Host communities

The acrimonious nature of interactions between Zambian host communities and mining operators is best illustrated by the treatment of the people of Mwale village in Mansa District in Luapula by a company using equipment branded “Atezo Mining”. Locals accused the mine of displacing people and polluting several feeder streams of the Mansa River catchment area with untreated mining effluent.

Oxpeckers was unable to determine the legal status of the mine, and a search for “Atezo Mining” through Zambian mining and company registration records yielded nothing. But community members shared the minutes of a November 2023 community meeting where the effects of the harmful activities of the miner were discussed. All the people who spoke at the meeting alluded to the destruction caused by mining around the village. They also reported a pervasive fear of dispossession and eviction from their lands as the mine expands.

“Three women who attended the meeting testified that they have lost land to the mine. Everybody in the meeting said they fear losing their homes because the mine is still expanding outwards from the centre of the village. One woman said she feared that her house would collapse into the open-cast pit, which is now two metres away from the houses,” the minutes recorded.

With shrinking land and no security of tenure over what remains of it, women in Mansa have turned to illegal artisanal mining for manganese to make ends meet. The women told the meeting that the income is too low when compared to the bad working conditions.

“Buyers pay as low as K2.50 [10 US cents] per bucket of manganese ore, which they are forced to accept out of desperation because they need income for their households,” the minutes stated. “The women are happy to be in mining, but they worry that the working conditions are not safe.

“They use hoes and picks to extract manganese-bearing ores before sorting and transporting it to points of sale. They have no protective clothing and carry the ore on their heads. They always complain of severe headaches and backaches because manganese is a very heavy base metal.”

Lead poisoning

While new mining projects sprouting across Luapula present Zambia with fresh challenges, Kabwe in the Central Province is still reeling from environmental and public health problems caused by lead contamination from a zinc and lead mine which closed 30 years ago.

Lead is a base metal used for making car batteries, pigments, ammunition, cable sheathing, lead crystal glass and radiation protection gadgets, among other industrial uses.

Chrizoster Phiri, Kabwe Central’s MP, told Oxpeckers that “everything” in Kabwe is tainted with lead contamination. British conglomerate Anglo-American Corporation operated the Broken Hill Mine from 1904 to 1974, when the Zambian government nationalised and incorporated it into the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) group. ZCCM closed the mine in 1994 amid a slump in global copper prices and demand.

“Kabwe faces a disaster from the contamination of water and soils with lead from the tailings dump. It is now in the soil, in the water and it circulates in the dusty air we breathe. The land is bare because the contaminated soils cannot sustain any vegetation,” Phiri said.

Lead contamination is believed to cause health and cognitive developmental diseases among children in Kabwe. Phiri said studies suggest that lead poisoning causes damage to the central nervous system, which is common among infants in Kabwe. It is also believed to be the cause of memory loss, which is rife among children in the town.

“The children lose concentration at school and at home. When sent to buy groceries in the shops, some return empty-handed because they forgot what they were sent to do,” Phiri said. “Some are born with deformed body organs because of abnormally high levels of lead in the body before birth. Lead contamination is also driving the high prevalence of abortions, still-births and premature births among women in Kabwe.”

According to a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Quality in September 2021, Kabwe is not the only Zambian town struggling with lead mining-related contamination: “Our research shows that lead contamination is pervasive in Zambian towns. The most contaminated are mining towns, although lead contamination has been identified in water bodies that run through non-mining towns (like Kafue.) The three main routes through which people get exposed to lead are ingestion, inhalation and eye or skin contact.

“The primary sources of lead contamination in Zambian towns are the mining and smelting industries. They contaminate the soil, ground sediments and water bodies that flow through or receive water from mining towns,” reads a summary of the findings of the study, entitled “The current trends in lead contamination in Zambian towns: save the innocents”.

Critical minerals

Zambia is yet to start lithium production. Lithium is in demand as a critical transition mineral due to its role in the production of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, mobile phones and renewable energy storage systems.

The government is still seeking partners to exploit the new lithium resources in Kalomo and Sinazongwe communal areas of the Southern Province.

Amid the boom in new minerals and value chains, copper remains the country’s major mineral export. According to statistics from the Bank of Zambia’s Direction of Trade Report issued in May 2023, Switzerland, China and Singapore were the top importers of Zambian copper in the first quarter of 2023.

The US, Hong Kong, South Africa, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Botswana and Namibia also imported large quantities of Zambian copper in the same period: “Total export earnings fell by 3.9% to US$2.8 billion, reflecting lower export volumes. A decline in copper output amid low grade ores, operational challenges and routine closures for maintenance at some mines accounted for the reduction in export volumes,” the report said.

Policy frameworks

The Centre for Trade Policy and Development is a Lusaka-based think-tank that advises the Zambian government and private investors in the extractives sector on the formulation of effective policy frameworks to protect the environment while maximising mining benefits for local people and the national treasury.

Its director, Isaac Mwaipopo, said Zambia must ensure that the pursuit of profits from its critical energy transition mineral wealth does not compromise national environmental integrity or threaten the well-being of host communities.

To create conditions for a sustainable and conflict-free mining industry, Zambia must harmonise all land-related laws that are currently being enforced in different ways by the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development, the Ministry of Lands, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Green Economy and the Environment, he said.

“It is necessary for these ministries to come together to define land uses and allocate land-use zones. The goal should be to harmonise the designation of lands for various uses like mining, agriculture and environmental protection zones. Such planning will ensure that land use conflicts are minimised.

“There is a need for [miners to have] environmental and social impact assessment plans to ensure their adherence to environmental protection laws. Mining companies must have comprehensive plans for the rehabilitation of mines when operations cease. This may involve re-planting native trees, restoring natural ecosystems and actions to limit the impacts of mine-related water and air pollution,” Mwaipopo said.

Community consultations prior to the start of mining operations must be anchored on transparency and inclusive dialogue between mining companies and local communities, he added. The communities must be informed about the impacts of mining activities and participate in decision-making processes. They must also have access to jobs, skills training and infrastructure development, among other benefits.

Mwaipopo said Zambia also needs new legal frameworks to encourage the use of precision mining and closed-loop recycling systems to minimise the production of mine wastes and better protect the environment.

Artisanal mining

According to the Centre for Trade Policy and Development, Zambia’s newfound wealth of critical minerals has spurred an increase in artisanal mining activities which need to be curtailed to avoid potential revenue leakages.

“With this expansion [of mining], there is a need for careful management as mining operations could potentially impact biodiversity sensitive areas like game parks, forest reserves and water catchments,” Mwaipopo said.

“Large-scale land-based investments such as mining and agriculture are contributing to forest degradation and are a precursor to climate change. This indicates the urgent need for decision-makers to re-think the mining sector by ensuring that mining practices are sustainable and inclusive in the long term.”

He blamed a lack of policy coordination among Zambian government agencies charged with environmental protection for causing confusion that has resulted in mining permits being issued in biodiversity-sensitive areas such as the Lower Zambezi National Park and North Swaka National Park.

“Such cases clearly demonstrate the existence of tensions between Zambian conservation and mining interests and require coordinated efforts to protect Zambia’s sensitive biodiversity sites from the mining of critical metals,” he said.

Parliamentary statement

Protracted efforts through email, instant messaging and calls to obtain comments from the Zambian Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development, Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, and the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting were ignored.

Oxpeckers also did not receive any responses to messages requesting interviews with Zambian Green Economy Minister Collins Njobvu, Mines Minister Paul Kabuswe and Principal Director in the Ministry of Information and Media Henry Kapata. Questions sent by e-mail to Kapata received no response.

However, a statement presented to parliament by the Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection in June 2020 shows that from 1985 the government knew about the negative effects of copper, gold and cobalt mining on its water resources.

“A number of environmental problems including air pollution, water pollution and land degradation were identified as key problems during the National Conservation Strategy and the National Environmental Action Plan in 1985 and 1992, respectively. Air and water pollution were attributed mainly, but not limited to mining,” the ministerial statement noted.

“A study carried out in 2005 under a project sponsored by the World Bank revealed that the Kafue River Basin was constantly under threat from mining and mining and industrial activity. Water quality varied along the river, with the Upper Kafue in the Copperbelt particularly affected with base metals such as copper and cobalt. New studies in the North-Western Province show that water bodies there are also showing signs of elevated mining-related pollutants.”

The ministry also revealed that investigations by the Zambia Environmental Management Authority, an independent environmental regulator, in the Copperbelt border region showed the Mwambashi, Mushimba, Chingola, Mushishimba and Kafue rivers were most affected by mining pollution.

The major pollutants in all the rivers were manganese, copper, cobalt, iron and total suspended solids, water-borne particles that exceed 2 microns in size. Among other negative effects, mining had also caused siltation and changes in water chemistry with pollutants leading to the death of aquatic life and pollution of water sources, the study found.

Oscar Nkala is a Zimbabwe-based Oxpeckers associate who works on transnational investigations across borders in sub-Saharan Africa. This investigation is part of the Oxpeckers #PowerTracker series titled ‘The human cost of energy in Africa’. 

Find the #PowerTracker tool and more investigations here.