MINING giant Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe has been commended for its social investments which have seen transformative development in Goromonzi district.
Prospect Lithium has overseen an improvement in the standards of living for the residents of Goromonzi through employment creation and infrastructure development.
This year it built semi-detached staff quarters for teachers at Belmont Primary School, refurbished classroom blocks at Vhuta Primary School, refurbished a science block at Mwanza High School, fenced Mwanza Primary School, established a police base, built a bridge, expanded major roads and put solar street lights in Goromonzi among other ongoing projects in the district.
Speaking during a tour of projects done by the company, local residents and teaching staff hailed the miner for transforming the community.
Ms Hillary Manyanye, the teacher-in-charge at Vhuta Primary School, said they were grateful for the help being received.
“When I came to this school in 2022, there were only two classroom blocks and PLZ constructed the other three blocks which increased our enrolment at the school. They also furnished all the classroom bocks and built staff quarters for the teaching staff which helped us with accommodation as we used to rent at nearby farms,” she said.
Mwanza High School head Mrs Plaxedes Magoronga said they had received a lot from Prospect Lithium from textbooks to furniture.
“We are grateful to PLZ for the help they have been giving to us. They have furnished our science laboratory in preparation for Advanced Level classes which are starting next year. They have also given us textbooks for the A Levels and they are doing a lot to upgrade this school,” she said.
Goromonzi Rural District Council chairman Mr Aaron Shamu said the relationship between Prospect Lithium and the community was highly commendable.
“We commend what PLZ is doing in our community, especially youth empowerment, community development and roads upgrade and I want to say let us continue to build this relationship for the good of the community and for the good of our country. We feel that we need to create more synergies as we continue this journey to develop our empire.”
PLZ director in the general manager’s office, Mr Yu Long, said the company had embarked on vibrant environment, social and governance projects.
“This year, the company implemented community-led projects, building on the work it did last year in education, health, security and infrastructure,” Mr Yu said.
“These projects bring with them an array of benefits which include employment creation, community development and promotion of trade and investment among others. The company’s ESG policy entails undertaking high impact projects in the surrounding community.
“PLZ’s mission is to create customer value and lead industry development, and its vision is to become a global leader in new energy lithium battery materials.
“In its two years of operations in Zimbabwe, PLZ noted that the lithium industry has fully realised that sustainable development is not only the development strategy of the new energy and new materials industry, but also an important path choice to deal with the transformation of the global energy structure and the risks of climate change.”
Herald
