Bindura is a town in the province of

Mashonaland Central Mashonaland Central is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 28,347 km² and a population of 1,152,520 (2012 census), representing about 8.5% of the total Zimbabwe population. Geography Background Bindura is the capital of the ...

province,

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It is located in the Mazowe Valley about 88 km north-east of

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

. According to the 1982 Population Census, the town had a population of 18,243. This rose to 21,167 in the 1992 census and in the 2012 census it had reached 46,275. It is the administrative capital of the province.

Bindura Nickel Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC) is a mining company based in Zimbabwe's Mashonaland Central.

, now called Trojan Nickel Mine, a subsidiary of

Mwana Africa plc Asa Resources Group is a mining company based in Johannesburg and London. According to the company's website, it is the first African-owned and African-managed business to be listed in the Resources sector of the London Stock Exchange's Alternati ...

, mines

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...

in the area and operates a

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...

refinery just south of the town.

Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

and

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

are grown intensely in the region. The first basic school in Bindura opened in 1912. The perennial

Mazowe River The Mazowe River (previously called Mazoe River) is a river in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river rises north of Harare, flows north and then northeast, where it forms part of the border with Mozambique and joins the Luenha River, a tributary of ...

flows around Bindura and through its north-eastern perimeter. Bindura was originally named Kimberley Reefs after the

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

mine which was opened in 1901, and changed to Bindura in 1913 when the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

arrived. Bindura is probably an Anglicised version of the Shona phrase, ''pindura mhuka'', meaning "turn the game".

Notable people

Freeman HKD Freeman HKD Boss (born June 22, 1988), born Emegy Slyvester Chizanga, is a Zimdancehall artist who rose to prominence after release of ''Joina City'' single. Early life Freeman HKD was born in Bindura, Mashonaland Central province of Zimbabwe ...

(b. 1988), singer-songwriter

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bindura Populated places in Mashonaland Central Province Provincial capitals in Zimbabwe 1901 establishments in the British Empire