Silobela

Silobela Silobela
—  Village  —
Silobela Location in Zimbabwe
Coordinates: 18.984258°S 29.299732°E / -18.984258; 29.299732
Country	Zimbabwe
Province	Midlands
District	Gweru
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+1)
Postal code (of seat)

Silobela is an agricultural village in Gweru District in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. It is located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Kwekwe, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north-west of Gweru, and bordering Nkayi on the west. Most of the inhabitants of Silobela were relocated from the area between Gweru and Bulawayo (called Hogo) in the 1940s to allow for white commercial farmers to take up that land.

A major centre in Silobela is the Loreto Mission which incorpoates the Loreto High School, a Roman Catholic boarding school, the Loreto Hospital, which is the largest medical centre in the region, and the Police Station with detention cells. Also in the vicinity is an irrigation co-operative and a business centre with a supermarket, beer outlets and greengrocer's. The Gweru River passes just to the east of this center.

The district is divided into smaller undocumented areas each with several primary schools and fewer secondary schools. A non-exhaustive list of these smaller areas includes Lahleka, Nyakwathi, Donsa, Simana, Ntobe, Mtshogwe, Nzwananzi, Malisa, and BB.

Silobela is known for its rich gold deposits. There have been reports of people finding exposed gold deposits in their back yards. Gold has been mined in the past by the now inoperative Turtle Mine, and by Empress Mine and Leopard Mine, now jointly known as Jena Mines. Currently, the Jena Mines, together with thousands of illegal gold panners, are actively extracting gold in the area.