Mutorashanga
Encyclopedia
Ferrochrome
Ferrochrome is an alloy of chromium and iron containing between 50% and 70% chromium.The ferrochrome is produced by electric arc melting of chromite, an iron magnesium chromium oxide and the most important chromium ore. Most of the world's ferrochrome is produced in South Africa, Kazakhstan and...
mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
town in Mashonaland West
Mashonaland West
Mashonaland West is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 57,441 km² and a population of approximately 1.2 million . Chinhoyi is the capital of the province.Mashonaland West is divided into 6 districts:* Chegutu* Hurungwe* Kadoma* Kariba...
province in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
. Situated on Zimbabwe's Great Dyke
Great Dyke
The Great Dyke is a linear geological feature that trends nearly north-south through the centre of Zimbabwe passing just to the west of the capital, Harare. It consists of a band of short, narrow ridges and hills spanning for approximately . The hills become taller as the range goes north, and...
mountain range, about 100 kilometers north of the capital, Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
. The mines at Mutorashanga are largely owned by Zimasco, a chrome mining company owned in turn by Sinosteel Corporation, although some are operated by contractors. The area is well known for its abundant aloe
Aloe
Aloe , also Aloë, is a genus containing about 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most common and well known of these is Aloe vera, or "true aloe"....
s, now threatened by mining, and other endemic flora. Aloe Ortholopha is endemic to the section of the Great Dyke mountain range in the Mutorashanga area.
Zimasco operates ferrochrome mines in Shurugwi
Shurugwi
Shurugwi, formerly Selukwe, a town and administrative centre in Midlands Province, southern Zimbabwe, located about 350 km south of Harare; population 16,138...
and Lalapanzi
Lalapanzi
Lalapanzi is a village in Midlands province in Zimbabwe. It straddles the Great Dyke, a mineral-rich geological formation that runs north–south down the center of the country...
in Zimbabwe's Midlands Province. It also operates Zimbabwe's largest ferrochrome smelter in the Midlands town of Kwekwe
Kwekwe
Kwekwe or Kwe Kwe , formerly spelt Que Que, is a city in central Zimbabwe. It is located in the centre of the country —roughly equidistant from Harare to the northeast and Bulawayo to the southwest. Its population stood at 47,607 in 1982, 75,425 in 1992 and the preliminary result of the 2002...
.
Muriel Gold Mine, south of Mutorashanga, also forms part of the sub-district. Mutorashanga falls under the administration of Lomagundi District in Mashonaland West Province and sits on the border of Mashonaland Central Province. The "town" consists of the mines, a police station, a post office, a Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority Office and small trading stores. Mutorashanga has no urban status. The town sits on the Lone Cow Farm and on Umvukwes Ranch and its extensions. Until 2000, when large-scale farmers were displaced, the area was a tobacco-growing district. Farmers also grew corn (maize), soy and winter wheat.
Ethel mine (Coordinates
Geographic coordinate system
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on the Earth to be specified by a set of numbers. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represent vertical position, and two or three of the numbers represent horizontal position...
: 17°3′54"S 30°42′24"E) 10 km north of Mutorashanga is a flooded Asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
quarry. The mine is used by diving clubs and swimmers (the water is very clear, and is there are several 'wrecks' at the bottom). There was a Mutorashanga Triathlon
Triathlon
A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...
held here for a few years (~2000). The quarry is known as the "Green Pool."
Water in the Green Pool is algae-free because of intense mineral content and it is unsuitable for agriculture. Water running in streams, mainly seasonal, off the Great Dyke is potable but not used for agriculture until it has passed through a granite range that runs adjacent to the Dyke. The chrome and salt content of the water keep the water clear, a rare occurrence in Zimbabwe outside of the Eastern Highlands. Chrome Fines, a black, shiny powder-like substance, lies freely on the ground in many parts of the town, particularly after it has rained. Few plants grow well on the mineralised soils of Mutorashanga, making it unsuitable for agriculture or grazing. Waterberry tree
Syzygium
Syzygium is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1100 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific...
s and phoenix palm
Phoenix (plant)
Phoenix is a genus of 14 species of palms, native from the Canary Islands east across northern and central Africa, the extreme southeast of Europe , and southern Asia from Turkey east to southern China and Malaysia. The diverse habitats they occupy include swamps, deserts, and mangrove sea coasts...
s are indigenous and grow on stream banks.
Ferrochrome mining in Mutorashanga began commercially in 1921 with the Rhodesian Chrome Corp. Ltd. Ownership has changed hands several times and has included, but not been limited to, Union Carbide
Union Carbide
Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. It currently employs more than 2,400 people. Union Carbide primarily produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some are high-volume...
.
The name derives from the Shona language
Shona language
Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...
spoken by 80 percent of Zimbabweans. Mutora - you take or carry, shanga - maize (corn) stalks. Residents say the name was incorrectly written by white administrators and that shanga should be shangu, or shoes, a reference to the stony ground that characterizes the area.
Most residents of the town are mineworkers and their families who live in a series of company-owned villages from Kutanga Village in the south to Ethel Village in the north. A single tarred road, owned by the mining companies in the area, runs through the town and all other roads are gravel. The mine road runs from Mapinga on the Harare-Chirundi Highway to the turn-off to the Victory Block, a former large-scale farming area developed after the end of World War II. The tar road makes it easier for miners to move ferrochrome ore to the Kildonan Railway Siding south of Mutorashanga.
Mutorashanga has several primary and one secondary school. A small hospital, owned by Zimasco, provides limited health care and maternity services.