PLZ to impact Mash East

RYAN CHIGOCHE

Mashonaland East’s Goromonzi and adjacent areas will undergo a makeover as a result of resources firm ,Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe’s (PLZ)’s commitment to empowering people through community development programmes.

This is one of several initiatives the firm is implementing in line with its recently released corporate social responsibility strategy and policy.

In the policy the company said, “PLZ endeavours that all its CSR development initiatives should leave a sustainable and lasting legacy in the communities hosting its operations and country at large,’’

“This will be our social licence for operating in our host communities,” it added.

The company hired specialists to conduct assessments, which led to the mapping of community needs into low, medium, and high priority areas.

Some of the top priority areas included unemployment, a lack of entrepreneurial training and skills, inadequate or inaccessible health infrastructure, and environmental degradation.

Others include inadequate secondary schools, lack of medication at local health facilities, poor infrastructure at primary schools as well as limited access to irrigation water and inadequate power supply.

“The company will prioritise the high impact projects that have capacity to transform the lives of the host communities, employees and country at large economically, socially and environmentally,’’ the company stated.

PLZ further said its CSR implementation strategy was guided by a strong policy and procedure which recognised that its business operations coexisted within unique socio-economic and political settings.

“The company  recognises that its minerals extraction and processing business operations exist in a socio-economic and political environment that should be managed,” PLZ said.

More social amenities are planned for the company, which has already invested in constructing a classroom block at the nearby Vhuta Primary School.

Local hiring from the district and province has also been given priority by the business, which was recently acquired by Huayou Cobalt, a Chinese multinational.

Prospective job seekers from Goromonzi Districts 25 wards and those from Mashonaland East province are being prioritised for up to 700 jobs to be created by the project.

Zimbabwe is banking on foreign direct investment, especially on mining, to achieve goals set out in the National Development Strategy.

Government has set out to achieve a US$12bn  Mining Economy by 2023.

The deal by Huayou, which bought out Australian investors, Prospect Resources, was worth US$422 m.

In line with the government’s push for devolution, the investment is also expected to increase the GDP of Mashonaland East. Contractors are currently working on the construction, which will be finished in January of next year and begin production in the middle of the year.

At full production, the mine will generate 4.5m tonnes of petalite and spodumene, two minerals that contain lithium.