Smith's Mine

This will be my third attempt to get the Hwange blog up and running again. Of the other two, one failed completely, the other was only half loaded so I certainly can’t do much worse than that.

Let’s start with something small so I won’t be too disappointed if it fails…..

Smith’s Mine.

To the north of Sinamatella lie the Smith’s Mine Hills.

    The hills are not especially high or rugged and there is a road (bumpy but passable) leading across and reaching flat ground again at the Guyu river. Many years ago, visiting Sinamatella as tourists, Sue and I travelled down ‘Guyu Drive’ which follows the Guyu valley from the foot of the hills to the Domboshuro loop. Even in those days it was not a well-travelled route and some way along it we were amazed to come across a man sitting by the road. We both remember that we asked him the way but neither of us reliably remembers much else. Sue thinks he was sitting by a fence, I have a vivid memory (that I think comes mainly from half-remembered Westerns) that behind him was a dark mine opening, shored up with timbers and disappearing into the hillside. Probably neither of us is right but recently Guyu Drive, which has been closed for years, was re-opened so we decided to go and search for the mine.

   We started at what we call the “Hyena River” because we once saw a Spotted Hyena bathing there on a hot day in the early rainy season. There wouldn’t be a Hyena bathing there now – it is dry and has been for months.

Close to the place where the Hyena River crosses the road, there is a small dam that we have always assumed has some connection with the mine and further upstream are the remains of a more ambitious dam, long ago swept away.

      In the photo I am standing on the largest remaining part of the wall and another tiny part of it can be seen in the bottom of the gorge. We pottered around for some time looking for other signs of the miners and wondering how much work it took to build the dam as well as what the builders might have said when it was swept away. “Oh dearie me!” perhaps? No, probably something a little stronger.

     We have no idea if the dam ever filled up – there’s no sign that it did but it must’ve been built many decades ago and there has been plenty of time for drowned trees to be replaced.

     Back at the car we decided to move further along Guyu Drive and see what we could find. There are plenty of small diggings, easily seen by the still-shiny heaps of rock that were dug out……

   But on investigation they are all rather dull, small holes in the ground and were presumably just prospecting trenches.

   We thought we were on to something when we came across this old piece of machinery by the side of the road……

  Judging by the wear on the teeth of the gear it was well-used…….

     I would guess it was part of some sort of stirrer and that it was used in prospecting rather than in full-scale production but why the complicated drive wheel? A belt drive would surely have been easier and more common. Perhaps someone reading this can tell me more about it?

    We searched around close to the machinery but found only some pieces of rusted sheet metal that I suspect formed the bath in which the stirrer turned. There was no sign of a fence or a mine disappearing into the hillside. In fact there was no sign of anything except a lot of small holes and some pretty rocks. We have been told that the mine worked Tungsten ore and that the many pieces of mica and quartz are common signs of Tungsten but to be honest I know as much about mining as I do about nuclear physics, Renaissance art or how to become a millionaire – nothing. If there’s anyone out there that knows anything about Smith’s mine – like who Smith was, what he mined and where he mined it I would love to hear from you!