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Leonard Ncube, Online Reporter

MORE than 100 golfers teed-off on Saturday and Sunday at the annual Chamber of Mines Inter Mines Golf Tournament held at the Elephant Hills Golf Course in Victoria Falls.

The tournament is organised by the Chamber of Mines as a platform to allow mine executives and managers to interact, off the noise and busy schedule of the mine site.

Besides being a sporting event, it is a business-to-business networking and business development platform that has attracted massive following and sponsorship.

The tournament started over 50 years ago, as Jumbo Golf Tournament, and has been rebranded to Chamber of Mines Inter Mines Golf Tournament.

Lately it has added non miners in the form of service providers as participants.

Twenty-eight teams participated, some from the same mine as the tournament allows a mine to have more than one team.

The companies that participated are Zimplats, Freda, Rio Zim, Zambezi Gas, Hwange Colliery, Powercoal, Zimasco, Mimosa, MMCZ, Unki, Caledonia, BNC, COMZ and How Mine.

Each year the Chamber organises the tournament, the winner of that particular year becomes the official partner and host for the ensuing year.

Zimplats were the host of this year’s edition after winning last year.

Zimplats D were the winners of the Jumbo Trophy this year again with a total score of 85 and had the mine not reached its peak in terms of the number of years each mine can host, they would be the hosts again next year.

Freda Rebecca A finished second on 84 points and will automatically be the hosts next year.

The host benefits through sponsorship that the industry directs to the tournament and gets an opportunity to showcase products and services.

In an interview at the golf course on Sunday, Chamber of Mines Chief executive Isaac Kwesu said the event has become part of the mining industry calendar.

“The tournament has been in existence for more than 50 years and has grown over time to become the prime of golf in the mining industry. The number of participants has grown to an extent that it has also attracted attention beyond the actual mainstream mining as service providers along the mining value chain are coming to compete.

“The purpose of this is to allow mine managers and executives to network over time as they need to take time away from work to enjoy. Normally the rules are such that the winner of the tournament is given an opportunity to host the tournament and last year’s winner was Zimplats who then are the hosts today,” he said.

Both the Chamber of Mines and the hosts have significant sponsors who take advantage to showcase and promote products.

Kwesu said the tournament is a good event in terms of business development, networking and relaxing.

Participants play in the form of teams, and each mine can have more than one team.

Kwesu said on Saturday in excess of 160 players teed-off in the service providers’ tournament while Sunday was the actual competitive tournament day with more than 110 players drawn from managers and executives in the mainstream mining industry.

-@ncubeleon