MINING operations at Eldorado Mine have fully resumed following the arrest of a gang of 16 illegal miners that invaded the mine two weeks ago.
Mine director, Ms Emy Zhuang said the arrests were made on different days with the accused miners who appeared in court recently and were remanded in custody to April 12.
Three other illegal miners who were still underground were also arrested last week after having hoisted themselves to the surface.
“We have now resumed mining operations after more than 10 days of disruptions by illegal miners who invaded the mine. All the 16 have been arrested,” she said.
She added that blasting which had been suspended because of the three workers who were still underground resumed after they were brought to the surface.
“We are now conducting blasting to extract more gold ore from underground. We suspended this as three other illegal miners were still underground, we did not want to endanger their lives,” said Zhuang.
The previous decision to halt any blasting activities, she said, was premised around the Mining Act which forbids any blasting for as long as there are people underground.
A lot of artisanal miners extracting gold ore have either lost their lives or got injured due to explosives that are used while people are still occupying underground mining area.
More than a dozen illegal miners invaded the mine which is some 12 kilometres from Chinhoyi town at around 1 am on 19 March and getting access into the mine shaft.