- State-backed miner moves beyond Elvington pilot as Zimbabwe seeks to tap a sector that delivers 75% of national gold output
The country’s biggest gold miner, Mutapa Gold Resources Ltd., is expanding its artisanal and small-scale mining partnership model to two new locations, targeting Jena Mine in the Midlands and Phoenix Prince Kitsiyatota Gold Mine in Bindura, as Zimbabwe intensifies efforts to formalise a sector that now accounts for the bulk of national gold production, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Rudairo Mapuranga
The expansion follows what the company describes as a successful two-year pilot at Elvington Mine in Mashonaland West, where about 800 artisanal miners operate within Mutapa’s ecosystem, producing between 20 and 30 kilograms of gold per month.
“Gone are the days when we used to have drones just to spot where the artisanal miners are so that we could chase them away,” said Chief Executive Officer Patrick Maseva-Shayawabaya. “We now see them as partners.”
The initiative, funded by Mutapa Gold Resources and delivered in partnership with Magaya Mining and the Zimbabwe School of Mines, provides training in mining methods, occupational safety, financial management, and environmental compliance. Graduates receive certification that Mines Minister Polite Kambamura described as a “passport to formality.”
The expansion reflects a broader pivot in Zimbabwe’s mining policy. Rather than displacing small-scale operators, large producers are increasingly being encouraged to integrate them into formal production systems with traceability mechanisms and access to processing infrastructure. Artisanal miners deliver about 75% of the gold to Fidelity Gold Refinery, with the subsector producing 34.9 tonnes in 2025 as part of a record national output of 46.7 tonnes.
The announcement comes as Mutapa Gold Resources seeks to double annual production to 220,000 ounces by 2029, backed by US$75 million in local bank funding. The company, which operates the Freda Rebecca, Shamva, and Jena mines, produced 104,626 ounces in the fiscal year ended March 2026.
Mutapa Gold Resources, a subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund Mutapa Investment Fund, directly employs 2,800 people and indirectly supports another 1,300 through contractors, with its operations supporting more than 4,000 livelihoods across mining communities. The company controls 52,000 hectares of mining claims nationwide.
