By-The Zanu PF-led government has announced that it would soon begin cancelling gold mining licences owned by companies failing to utilise their claims.

NewsDay reports that Polite Kambamura, the mines deputy minister, said that grabbed mines could be given to small-scale miners.

Kambamura was addressing small-scale miners over the weekend during the launch of the Miners for Economic Development (ED) Mashonaland West chapter at Golden Valley in Kadoma: 

We have started cancelling EPOs (exclusive prospecting orders) and we started with Matabeleland North where we have cancelled many. We are yet to come here in Mashonaland West, but we will be going to all provinces. We have a company sitting on 6 500 gold claims. We will use the ‘use it or lose it’ principle as we have discovered that people with EPOs are not really doing anything, but they are holding the areas for selfish reasons. In future, we are going to cancel EPOs if those companies go for six months without providing exploration reports.

Kambamura refused to disclose the name of the company sitting on 6 500 claims.