What is a mining title?
A Mining Title is a mining grant under laws and mining regulations to a person or group of approved persons of the right to develop and exploit a properly delineated area for its mineral wealth.
In Zimbabwe, Mining Titles are issued by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. Applications are submitted at eight provincial offices across the country.
How to get a mining title in Zimbabwe
The following are the procedures and requirements of acquiring a Mining title in Zimbabwe
- The Agent is required to physically peg the area by marking the deposit with a discovery peg. She should also post Prospecting, Discovery, and Registration notices on the ground. The notices must be posted in a conspicuous manner to alert other prospectors.
- Before posting these notices the agent is required to inform or seek consent from the landowner of his intention to prospect. Note consent is only sought from the landowner if prospecting on a farm less than 100 hectares, otherwise, the prospector is only required to inform the farm/landowner in writing either by registered mail or by hand delivery.
- All areas classified as not open to prospecting and pegging or reserved against prospecting and pegging cannot be pegged eg. cultivated land /arable lands, dip tanks, dams.
- Each prospecting license can peg up to a maximum of 10 claims of 1 hectare each.
- An application for registration must be submitted to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development offices. The application must have copies of the following attachments:-
1. Prospecting license
2. Prospecting Notice
3. Discovery Notice (Base Minerals)
4. Notification of intention to prospect to the landowner
5. A map in triplicate to the scale of 1: 25 000
- If the Provincial Mining Director is satisfied that all pegging procedures have been followed he shall issue a certificate of registration upon payment of the gazetted fee. This allows the holder to start mining operations subject to meeting other obligations like Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
- Within 3 months from the date of registration, the miner is required to obtain a renewal of title. Claims have a 12-month tenure after which they shall expire or be renewed.
- Failure to renew the title will result in the forfeiture of a mining claim. Furthermore, loss of a title can be through cancellation or abandonment.
