Posted on 07/28/2011 4:45:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Four tonnes of gold ore were allegedly stolen by a 46 member gang from a small scale gold mine in Zimbabwe in two separate raids, state media reported on Wednesday.
The robbers allegedly beat up workers with iron bars and clubs.
One of the workers lost two fingers during one of the raids at the mine at Chev Chess Farm near Kadoma, a town about 140 kilometres south west of the capital Harare.
According to the Herald newspaper, the first group of 19 armed men went to the mine on June 8 at night driving pickup trucks.
"They were armed with catapults, stones, machetes, axes, knives, clubs and iron bars," the paper quoted a police source saying.
The gang allegedly beat up farm workers before stealing gold ore which they loaded into their trucks before driving away.
Another group raided the mine on June 22 at night and used the same methods to steal three tonnes of gold ore.
A report was made to the police but no arrests have been made so far.
The owner of the mine Sam Munyoro confirmed the incident but refused to shed more light.
(Excerpt) Read more at africareview.com ...
Four tons of gold ore = how much gold?
Four tons of gold ore = how much gold?
Saw a doc on gold. I think a ton (2000lbs) of “pure” gold would just be shy of filling a 14” cube.
Now if it had been four tons of food...wait, they don’t have four tons of food.
Four tonnes of ore does not produce four tonnes of gold. Not even close. Bad headline writing (yet again).
:’D
Although a trebuchet WOULD make a really fast way to move gold ore!
5 grams per ton would be a minimal cost effective level and an ounce per ton would be outstanding. There is a mine in Timmins ONT producing ore in the 15,000 oz per ton range which is phenomenal.
This just doesn't make any sense at all. 8,000 lbs of gold lying around -- guarded by farm workers -- loaded up -- no more info??
Why are truckloads full of recycled electronics and computers running through my head after I read that?
Rumours abound about a fat, middle-age man with a Baltic accent and a large Korean wearing a black, felt-derby hat.
Oh yeah....they had a LARGE “lazer”.
That sounds familiar but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Well, the money exchange site that I use still has a conversion to Zimbabwe dollars. I can’t think why they would, if what you say is true. (I don’t doubt the part about Mugabe. I wouldn’t put anything past that thieving murderer.)
"This just doesn't make any sense at all. 8,000 lbs of gold lying around -- guarded by farm workers -- loaded up -- no more info??"Actually a bit over 8800 pounds of gold (4 metric tonnes), but it is gold ore, not refined gold.
Using the figure of 3.55 grams per tonne mentioned in Reply 30 by razorback-bert that would produce about 50 ounces of gold.
This article doesn't make sense to me either, but for different reasons. Most thievery in gold mines is done by a crime called "high grading" whereby a miner spots high grade ore and pilfers it and smuggles it out of the mine. High grading involves processing small quantities of ore, perhaps in the miner's home or garage. One high grading operating in northern Quebec took place in rented office space and above the local RCMP detachment and the roof of the building. The perpetrators were caught by RCMP constables smelling the odour produced by the miners' extraction process. The Horsemen who made the arrest thought it a huge joke.
Refining 8 tonnes of ore is a whole different order of magnitude.
I wonder if Zanu PF is putting out a story through their tame news outlet in order to distract from their own shenanigans.
Hey, I was supposed to get 30% of that gold by helping this guy from Zimbabwe to transfer it to my account so that his fortune was safe from his recently overthrown government...At least thats what the email said...still waiting to hear back from him with my 30%...
Thank you for the ping Clive.
Information makes things much clearer.
Thank you Clive!!
I believe you are right about the distraction.
"Catapults? "Achmed, grab the catapults. You never know if we might need to breech some ramparts.""Yanks call them "slingshots". This Americanism has begun to creep into British usage also. Apparently not so in southern African English.
The term "slingshot" originally meant a sling with a receptacle for a stone. The stone was launched by swinging the stone laden sling in a circle and then releasing it so that the stone flew off at a tangent from the point of release. That is how David killed Goliath
Hang in there.
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