The Zimbabwe Government has expressed concern over an increase in the number of mining fatalities in the country.

Over the past three years, 463 people succumbed to various catastrophes in Zimbabwe.

Chief Government mining engineer, Engineer Michael Munodawafa said over 463 fatalities were recorded in the mining industry from 2018 to 2020 due to various reasons.

“We have seen an upsurge in the number of fatalities in the mining industry with 112 recorded in 2018, 182 in 2019 and 169 in 2020.

“The above fatalities were as a result of not having enough enforcement of mining regulations due to increase in number of mining locations and not enough resources availed to the inspectorate, pure disregard of mining regulations by registered and unregistered (illegal) miners and lack of proper mining knowledge and understanding of mining environment, among others,” said Eng Munodawafa.