Pushed to the brink, women and children have joined the ranks of what once was a male domain, Wellington Takavarasha, president of the Zimbabwe Artisanal and Small-Scale for Sustainable Mining Council, told parliament in April. There are about 153,000 women and children now in the trade, he said.
But gold prices have declined worldwide in recent years, and at the same time extracting the precious metal from the Mutare River has become harder.
The mercury that miners use slowly attacks the nervous system. Ingested in small quantities each day it will accumulate in the body and eventually produce symptoms such as hair loss, memory impairment and loss of muscle coordination, according to health experts.
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