A Chinese Firm (Steeltrix Manufacturing) has opened a quarry mine in ward 4 Domboshava, a few metres away from Domboshava Training Centre, Domboshava Dot Coms has learnt.
The development has seen residents at the vocational training centre and villagers in the surrounding areas experiencing strong vibrations and shocks due to blasting.
Residents who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity said they have been experiencing heavy vibrations since the mine started operating a few months ago, and are worried that their houses may not be strong enough to stand against the vibrations in the long run.
"The blasting is very strong. We normally experience it twice a week and we can feel our walls shacking when they blast their rocks. We are now worried that our walls may not be able to stand against the vibrations in the long run" said the source.
Another resident said there was a time last month when he saw a huge rock flying in the air after a strong blast occurred. The source also claimed that some of his colleagues who where at Mverechena Shopping Centre which is a few Kilometres from the mine experienced heavy vibrations and saw huge rocks flying in the air.
"It is true that we experience heavy vibrations. Last month i even saw a huge rock flying in the air after a huge blast occurred. Even my friends who were at Mverechena Shopping Centre saw the rocks and called me to check if i was ok" said the source.
One of the Mine workers who spoke to this publication said there are instances where the blasting goes out of hand which leads to heavy vibrations, but the firm has put in place measures to reduce the impact of blasts.
"Its true that the blasts are heavy at times. There was an instance where there was a heavy blast which saw some huge rocks weighing about 20 tonnes flying in the air and travelling a distance of about 100 metres from the source of the blast. That time, the company lost a lot of structures after they were destroyed by the rocks. But they have put measures in place to reduce the impact of the blasts to avoid such dangerous incidences" he said.
In an interview with Domboshava Dot Coms, the mine's Blaster Mr Michael Petro said the blasting used to be heavy at the beginning of the operations, but the company has since reduced the charge of the blasts to reduce heavy vibrations.
"At first, the blasting had a huge impact because the charge was too high when the previous blaster was here. When i was employed, i was specifically told to reduce the blasting charge. So now we have reduced the charge of the blasting so the vibrations are low and flying bursts are no longer going far" he said.
The mine's Operations Manager Mr Joseph Dimma assured residents in surrounding areas that they will not be affected as the company has instructed its blaster to reduce the charge of their blasting to avoid causing heavy vibrations.
" I would like to assure members in surrounding communities that they will not be affected by heavy vibrations because we instructed our blaster to reduce the charge of our blasting. We have also resolved to blast twice a week" he said.
Mr Dimma said the company is still preparing the area to put its quarry making plant and it will bring a lot of benefits to the community through social responsibility.
"We are still at the early stages of our operations because we are still clearing the land and preparing the space to put our plant".
"We are expecting our operations to be on full throttle early next year and we will bring a lot development to the community through constructing roads, clinics and providing employment."
"So far we have employed 30 people from Domboshava and we are expecting the figure to increase as the company's operations reach their prime. We are also in the process of constructing boreholes in the area. So far we have sighted a number of areas where the water table is sufficient enough to allow us to sink boreholes. We are only waiting for authorities to give us a go ahead", he said.
Mr Dimma also revealed that Steeltrix Manufacturing, also known as Ganshar Quarries will be producing quarry stones and bricks. The mine is expected to produce 10 000 metric tones of quarry stones per day when it reaches its full operational capacity.
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