President Emmerson Mnangagwa, had declared a "state of disaster", he added. A government mining engineer, Michael Munodawafa, told AFP outside the mine, 145 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of the capital, that "hope of finding anyone alive is very slim since it happened Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. It's almost over 24 hours".
Moyo said "frantic efforts were being made to pump out water from the flooded shafts before retrieval of the victims". The government has launched an appeal for $200,000 to be used "to pump out water, feeding the bereaved families and the (rescue) teams on the ground, transportation and burial of the victims", he said.
"Given the magnitude of this disaster, we kindly appeal to individuals, development partners and the corporate world for assistance in cash and kind," he said. Zimbabwe is the throws of a deep economic crisis, the worst in a decade. Annual inflation shot to 56.90 percent up from 42.09 percent in December 2018, according to official statistics released Friday, the highest increase in a decade. Economists say in reality prices have gone up more than three fold in recent months.
Formal unemployment is estimated at over 90 percent and artisanal gold mining, mostly in mines long abandoned by big corporates, is widespread and provides a source of income for many. Artisanal mining is not banned outright in Zimbabwe, although it is largely unregulated.