In my quest to bring any new finds of quartz to the market I decided
to branch out to Zambia. Zambia has some fabulous quartz deposits. We
were after quartz with tremolite/actinolite inclusions. I discovered
this deposit myself on one of my rockhounding trips into Africa.
Allow me to highlight a few of the happenings of my trip.
I hope these travel letters of mine helps to color in the world from
where the fantastic African quartz comes from.
Africa is a vast continent. When you study the geology of Africa one
finds that the best gem material comes from way north of the
Capricorn line. This takes us into Zambia and further north. This
trip meant a four day drive just to get to my destination. The
distance is not that far, it is the difficulty of the trip. I
travelled. through eight border post on this trip and at times we
could only do 40km per hour because of the poor state of the roads.
My vehicle needs new brakes and suspension rubbers after the trip. I
also need a new set of shocks.
Botswana is uneventful. A long narrow road takes you through
Botswana. My only advice here is, do not speed. You will surely get
caught. I paid a $ 45 US fine for doing 90 in a 70 km zone. They
caught me 40 meters past the sign. You have to pay on the spot. The
other thing you need to look out for is the elephants. I am serious.
Johan that went with me, warned me and then we found them in the
middle of the road.
At Kazangula we crossed the mighty Zambezi with an ancient ferry.
This was a fantastic experience. They load a huge 40 ton truck and
four vehicles at a time and then cross from Botswana to Zambia. The
Zambezi was in full flood and it takes some maneuvering to get the
ferry in place. The huge diesel motors whined and bucked to get
across. The crossing took 3 hours.
On the Zambian side they asked me why I was in Zambia and I told him
that I was there to buy rocks. The customs guy then asked me where
was my work permit. It took me five minutes to try and explain to him
the difference between someone who is investing in his country
against someone who works in his country. He did give me the business
visum in the end. You have to be very courteous and not loose your
temper when you deal with the border agents in Africa. They can keep
you there all day. On a previous trip to Mozambique I had to sweat
out 4 hours on the side of the road when they refused to let me
through after losing my temper. They wanted me to unpack. I refused.
In the end I had to unpack.
We visited the mighty Victoria falls on the Zambian side. The
Victoria falls was named after Queen Victoria of England. The falls
is over 1 km wide and it plummets down over 100 meters. I got
thoroughly soaked because I did not hire a raincoat. Everybody should
visit the VIC falls once in their lifetime. It is an awesome experience.
In Zambia the cuisine is very limited. At Chomo we were told that
there is a choice between Chicken, T Bone and fish. My friend Rusty
will suffer here because there are just no food for a vegetarian. You
have a choice of rice and Msima (Maize porridge) or chips. They do
chicken well. Fish may be suspect. Meat is not tender enough. So we
stuck chicken at every meal.
The rooms were very basic. The mattresses are usually shot and hot
water is a luxury. Zambians wash from a plastic basin. They look at
you strange when you ask them for a hot shower.
Lusaka is the capital with 3 million people. We saw lots of people. A
seething humanity of them. People everywhere. The roads in the
capital are unbelievably bad. It seems as if mediocrity and poor
service is the order of the day. They have become used to the low
quality that they have to endure, so they learned to live with it.
Outside Lusaka we encountered the dreaded Traffic police again.
Another fine. Zambia was more affordable than Botswana. $ 15.00. What
gives you the idea that I was in a hurry to get to my destination.
In the afternoon we headed north again to the copper belt. This was
our destination, to the quartz mine. The mine is close to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo border. This is wild country. Few
white people ever get here. The roads are almost non-existent. When
we stop on the side of the road we get the curious sight seers. They
just stare at you. I do not think they see a lot of white people. One
guy asked me where I came from and I pointed in the direction of the
road which laid behind. He then asked me where I was going and I
pointed in the direction where we were heading. I then asked him
where he came from and he pointed at his hut. I then asked him where
he was going and he pointed to the hut again. Back in the car
Johan and I could not stop laughing.
On the road we stopped to buy food for the miners. They almost never
have meat. It is fish, maize porridge and vegetables. A drunken guy
stopped us on the road just to inform us that he speaks British
English and not American English. He wanted a cigaret. Close to the
mine we hit a mega pothole and went flying through the air to land in
another pothole. The next moment I realized that our fuel gage
registered that there was no fuel. Now we were 150 km from any help
and no fuel. We soon realized that it was only the gage. We were
relieved but now we had to drive without any gage. This took some
getting used to.
Finally we reached the mine. It was in the middle of an African wood.
Tall trees surrounds the mine. This was my second time here. The
first time I actually discovered the deposit. They told me that they
have mined the quartz already in our communications but when we got
there we discovered that we were misled. They have not even touched
the deposit. We came prepared for that. We pitched our tent and
started with the negotiations. They wanted as much as they could get
and we wanted to pay a fair price. After a day we finally settled on
an agreed price.
We had 17 people in the pit digging away. What an experience. It
takes time and patience before you get the good stuff. At the end of
the second day we hit our first decent pocket. It is an incredible
experience to pull out the large pieces. They are completely covered
with soil when you first see them. Only after they are cleaned do you
really see what you mined. Water is a scarcity at the mine so we can
not always see what we are mining.
Nightfall in the bush. We make a huge fire to keep the wild animals
at bay. We fried our fillet until it was crispy on the outside and
tender inside while listening to the rhythmic beating of a drum
somewhere in the dark.
At the miners fire it started becoming more and more noisy as they
were getting sloshed. A large bottle of local spirits cost them less
than one dollar. They were happy because they had prospects of money
ahead. Luckily I sleep easily.
We have our own campboy, Jacob. He was responsible to see that we
have enough firewood and that we have enough water which he drew from
the river. He also washed our clothes.
We had to offer a high price for the large undamaged specimens as an
incentive to take them out better. It worked.
Jacob arrived at the camp the next morning sick with Malaria. Luckily
I had some malaria medication packed. We started on a cycle of
medicine with him. On day three he pulled through. Every year many
hundreds die of malaria in this part of Africa.
The last day of mining we decided to treat the miners to a feast,
this meant that we had to head back to the local market to buy the
Chibuku(local beer) and a goat. On the way we stopped just in time
when we saw an obstacle in the road. It was a drunken man who passed
out in the middle of the road. This is the sad thing of rural life.
It was not one of our miners.
The 150 kms back to our nearest tar road took us over four hours. It
is very tiring. Close to the nearest town we saw a chicken crossing.
Why did the chicken cross the road. Because there was a chicken
crossing stupid. See the picture.
A word of advice to anybody who wants to visit Africa is this. Never
carry a lot of money with you. People have been lost in Zambia. I
have heard of a Chinese gentleman who had $ 30000 who went into the
bush and was never seen again. Pay the miners when you have extracted
the goods and when you reach the major towns. Make sure that all the
paperwork is in order. They recently jailed a German buyer who bought
ten kg of quartz without a permit. When you travel with the goods get
a travel permit from the ministry of mines.
I discovered an abandoned mine with pegmatites of beryl and
tourmaline running on top of the ground, we followed a lead from one
of the miners. In October this year we plan to start working
this pegmatite. We have applied for a mining permit now. Zambia is
unexplored with many gems just lying in wait to be discovered.
Back in Lusaka we found the Geological survey closed for a day of
seminars. We could not have our stones evaluated. You must have your
stones evaluated so that you can take the evaluation certificate to
the ministry of mines for the payment due for the export certificate.
After that you need to get to the customs to have it cleared. This
was the most difficult part of dealing in Zambia. Without paperwork
you are going nowhere. They need paperwork.
We came back through Zimbabwe. My heart bled for a country with so
much potential. Zimbabwe is falling apart. There was a fuel shortage
in the country. Most pumps have not seen any diesel for three months.
Imagine that. Sugar was lacking in the stores. There were breadcues.
And everywhere you find police roadblocks. It is sad to see a
fabulous country turning into a police state.
Our first evening in Zimbabwe could have been disastrous for us. We
almost hit a buffalo in the road. We rounded a corner in a hilly area
and the buffalo was smack in the middle of the road. WOW!!. My heart
was thumping for some time afterwards. We slept at the Kariba dam.
The hippos woke us early the next morning.
At the border we saw a troop of baboons that have taken over the
border post. Every vehicle that enters the border post is searched by
the large troop of baboons. You must never leave your windows open
here. It was mirrored by the customs agents who looked as if they
were intent to get a bribe from us at any cost. From the engine
number to the amount of cash we carried was scrutinized. They are now
surviving with bribes in Zimbabwe it seems.
Next month, maybe Mozambique.