In line with its ‘Invest Beyond Mining’ drive, Mimosa Mining Company has donated modern equipment worth US$130 000 to the Midlands State University’s Faculty of Engineering and Geosciences.
Mimosa Mining Company General Manager, Engineer Stephen Ndiyamba presented the donation that included six Wi-Fi enabled material microscopes, one of which has an in-built camera, a Wi-Fi router and a 7th generation iPad to the University.
Speaking during the hand-over ceremony held at the University’s Zvishavane Campus on the 18th of March 2021, Engineer Ndiyamba said that the donation was motivated by the company’s guiding philosophy to nurture partnerships and ‘invest beyond mining’.
“We realise the value of education and we have made this sector one of the critical areas of our intervention in the quest to improve academic excellence in the nation,” said Engineer Ndiyamba.
This new philosophy has seen the Zvishavane based mining concern supporting the Midlands State University and other academic institutions in the country through infrastructure development, provision of equipment, learning aids and scholarships.
“We believe that in making such investments, Mimosa will be investing in Zimbabwe’s future. It is this quest to provide the equipment needed for students to excel that has motivated us as Mimosa to partner with the Midlands State University in the provision of training and research equipment in the form of microscopes.
Our support is intended to capacitate the institution so that it continues to excel in churning out graduates who are well drilled in both theoretical and practical aspects of mining and geo-informatics,” he added.
Engineer Ndiyamba said that the donated equipment is the latest microscope technology and that the technology is so unique that only Midlands State University and one other university in South Africa have this kind of state-of-the-art equipment in the Region.
Speaking while receiving the equipment on behalf of the University, the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Academic Affairs, Professor Alois S Chiromo who was representing the Midlands State University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Victor N Muzvidziwa thanked Mimosa for the gesture of goodwill which he said will help to capacitate the institution and improve its quality of education and institutional ranking.
“Your contribution is a most welcome development, that will see the Midlands State University realise its goals. As Mimosa Mining Company you have made a huge investment in your human resources. The students that we are teaching here, will become your human resources. So, by investing in us, you will be investing in your future human resources.”
Through your adequate and advanced equipment, we will produce competent, vibrant and holistic graduates who will add value to your company and to the modernisation of the economy at large. In return, we hope that academia will use the equipment to proffer solutions to some of the challenges that you encounter in the mining sector,” said Professor Chiromo.
Mimosa Mining Company has a long and sustained mutually beneficial relationship with the Midlands State University which has seen many of its employees enrolling for various capacity building programmes while the University has also received a lot of material and infrastructural support to bolster the quality of its research and training.
Geosciences department students representative Nyasha Muchayana thanked Mimosa Mining Company for the timely intervention which he said would improve the microscope to student ratio as well as enhance efficiency when doing practicals.
“This gift will ensure that Zimbabwe’s finest geologists come from MSU … and as students, we will work very hard so that if Mimosa wants to carry out research it will rely on us to do its coefficient testing. We will jealousy guard this equipment so that future generations will also benefit from it,” he said.
The donation comes at a time when the Faculty of Engineering and Geosciences is undertaking intensive ground-work towards the introduction of new post-graduate studies to enhance its capacity to meet international research standards.