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Chinese firm, Ming Chang Sino-Africa Mining Investments, has embarked on a road infrastructure development project in Mashonaland Central Province that will link the community to agriculture produce markets and key social amenities.
The gold mining company, which has six gold mining projects in Masvingo and Midlands provinces, is also refurbishing the local clinic that has been closed for some time.
The initiatives are part of the firm’s social corporate responsibility programmes in the Mazowe District, where the gold producer is carrying out an expansion project with a new mine set to be operationalized in the area.
The projects include rehabilitation of a 14 km stretch that connects the villages to their provincial capital -Bindura. For 20 years, the residents of Simona struggled to access medical facilities and markets for their farm produce in nearby Bindura due to the bad state of the roads.
This resulted in massive post harvest losses for the villagers who also rely on agricultural production as their main source of income. A reliable transport infrastructure is an economic enabler which facilitates trade through movement of goods and services from one point to the other.
But in just two months since Chang Sino-Africa Mining Investments acquired a sizable gold deposit mining in the area, a 6km stretch has already been rehabilitated with works on another four kilometres expected to commence soon.
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Ming Chang Sino-Africa spokesperson on Simona site Mr Link Yang said the road which also leads to the company’s mine had been built during the first phase and second phase which will soon commence will connect the community to a nearby shopping center and clinic that is now defunct.
“There is a popular Chinese saying which goes like, if you want to get rich, build a road first. It is correct because people can come in and out easily and your community has access to health facilities, they can sell their farm produce and get tourists in areas where there are attractions,” he said during a tour of the road works on Monday afternoon.
Known for its various corporate social responsibility projects in the various areas in which it operates, Ming Chang Sino-Africa recently rehabilitated a 14 kilometre gravel road in Bindura and has painted schools and provided computers and learning materials in rural communities.
Besides the road in Simona, the company has also constructed almost 50 km of roads in various rural communities including Kwekwe, Masvingo and Shamva.
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