Empress Mine Township is a populated place in the area formerly known as Salakuhle (misspelled as Salagushle) in Zhombe Communal Land, Kwekwe District of the Midlands Province in Zimbabwe. It is Zhombe's largest growth point yet officially it is rated second after Zhombe Joel, the current Zhombe District capital.
Location
Empress Mine Township is about 70 km south-west of Kadoma by road, 98 km north-west of Kwekwe by the fastest route, and just 3 km south of Columbina Rural Service Center.
History
The first houses at Empress Mine Township were built in 1968 when Empress Nickel Mine was established, twelve years after Rio Tinto Southern Rhodesia Limited was initially incorporated on August 29, 1956 to develop and mine the Empress Nickel deposit. RioZim as it is called now, was the first mining operation Rio Tinto set up outside Europe.
Residential areas
There were two residential areas, one for whites and the other for Africans.
Empress Mine Township
What was known as Empress Mine Township was the Whites only suburban location which was a low density area with bigger, more beautiful houses and a lovely set-up.
Former workers of Cam and Motor Mine were quick to call the low density suburban township maCammera meaning at Cammera"; CAMMERA being short for "Cam and Motor Mine European Residential Area", because it reminded them of the CAMMERAs at Eiffel Flats, Kadoma and Martin Spur near Kadoma. To this day the low density area is referred to as kumaCAMMERA, meaning "at CAMMERA".
Facilities
At Empress Nickel Mine's peak the low density suburban had all the best and beautiful facilities urban centers enjoy let alone a high school. Secondary school pupils who were boarders travelled to and from Kadoma on a weekly basis by bus; Sunday afternoon in to school and Friday afternoon back at Empress. There was a primary school, a club house, squash court, tennis court, bowling club, churches and multiple other state of the art facilities.
Mopani Township
Mopani Township was an all blacks township with various types of houses some of which were sub-standard. However many blacks had not been exposed to the best of houses, and they were comfortable in those houses. Not all houses for blacks were undesirable; some met even the standards of today's smaller houses.
Facilities
Residents of Mopani Township had no complain in terms of recreational facilities let alone swimming pools and state of the art type of facilities. Senior black officers and teachers had their residence between the low and high density suburban along Micah Crescent which is now Machabango Crescent after a long serving building instructor at Rio Tinto Agricultural College.
Community service
Apart from building houses that will remain after the closure of the mine, During its heyday Empress Mine Township was the center of all activity and provided many families with sustenance in the form of employment and other spillover benefits. Columbina Rural Service Center was built to serve customers from the adjacent Empress Mine. The road from the main Harare-Bulawayo road was tarred for smooth flow of transport serving Empress Nickel Mine. Electricity to the mine made the surrounding townships and those along the pylons lines to be connected to the grid. All these remain to this day though the 9 foot tarred roads needs attention.
Deterioration
Empress Mine was established in 1968 based on a proved and probable ore reserve of twenty million tonnes. Empress Mine initial production was 55 000 tonnes per month from underground. When the opencast came into production in 1970 total tonnage rose to 85 000 tonnes per month. In 1976 the opencast reached its far depth and the underground mining had to reach the 85 000 tonnes per month without the opencast operation. Empress closed down in 1982. The Rio Tinto Group who owned Empress Nickel Mine cited economic fall down of nickel prices and the mine could not continue in such an environment. Empress Nickel Mine employed about 1,400 workers who faced retrenchment; to save their jobs the government gave a $3.5 million loan to Rio Tinto to sustain the mine for at least 3 more years but still the mining company could not do with then economic environment. The government wanted to keep Empress Nickel Mine open until 1986. In 1985 the closure was sealed with no hope of reopening.