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The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has taken a major step toward establishing a National Responsible Mining Audit Framework (NRMAF), with the pilot version now completed and set to be tested in the upcoming Responsible Mining Audit (RMA), Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Ryan Chigoche
The move signals a decisive shift from the previous era of fragmented oversight and widespread non-compliance, as the government sharpens its tools to enforce accountability across the mining sector.
The new framework is a direct response to weaknesses exposed in the 2025 Responsible Mining Audit Gap Analysis, which highlighted critical challenges such as inconsistent audit methodologies, limited scope, poor quality reporting, and severe interagency fragmentation.
Despite progress during the 2023 and 2024 audits, compliance remained uneven, particularly among small-scale and informal operators. This context created an urgent need for a unified, high-standard national audit system, leading to the development of the pilot NRMAF.
“The mining sector is a strategic national asset. To ensure its sustainability and equitable distribution of benefits, the nation requires a mechanism to verify responsible resource extraction at a high, all-inclusive standard rooted in national law. The previous audit system suffered from inconsistent methodology, poor report quality, and severe interagency fragmentation. This NRMAF directly addresses these historical deficiencies,” said Edwell Maposa of ENM Advisory Group, the consultants leading the development of the framework.
Developed as an 18-month structured pilot, the NRMAF sets a unified, mandatory standard for evaluating statutory compliance, technical performance, worker welfare, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) obligations across all mining operations.
The pilot represents a major upgrade from the audit approaches used in 2023 and 2024, creating a more robust and holistic model of oversight.
A central feature of the pilot is the “One Audit, One File” methodology. This approach creates a single, comprehensive audit record for each mining operation, eliminating duplication, conflicting findings, and information silos across government institutions.
To enable this system, the pilot introduces a Pilot Data Collection System (DCS), a template-based, centralised data gathering tool that unifies inputs from Mines, EMA, NSSA, ZIMRA, rural district councils and the Labour Ministry. This forms the foundational dataset required for the future National Digital Mining Portal (NDMP).
The framework integrates mandatory national laws, including the Mines and Minerals Act, Environmental Management Act, Factories and Works Act, and NSSA Act, with leading international ESG best practices. It is anchored on three core principles: integrity, statutory adherence, and transparency.
The initiative builds on insights from earlier Responsible Mining Audits. In 2023, the audit system was introduced at a national scale for the first time. By 2024, capacity and coverage had expanded substantially. Last year, inspectors visited 728 mining sites, up from 424 in 2023, issuing fines totalling USD 680,000. While this reflected stronger enforcement, it also revealed persistent gaps, particularly where institutions conducted inspections independently.
It is these inefficiencies that the NRMAF seeks to eliminate.
Deputy Chief Government Mining Engineer E Paskwavaviri, addressing the auditors from various State MDAs, explained that mining oversight spans multiple government institutions, and when they operate separately, it leads to duplication, delays, and loopholes that undermine compliance.
He said the pilot framework is designed to bring these agencies into one coordinated system with standardised processes and a single audit record for each mining operation. According to him, this shift represents more than an administrative adjustment, it marks a broader cultural move toward unified oversight and a shared national compliance standard.
Therefore, it is the government’s expectation that the NRMAF eliminates inconsistencies that previously allowed some operators to exploit overlapping or unclear regulatory touchpoints.
Key objectives of the NRMAF pilot include enforcing statutory compliance, establishing the “One Audit, One File” data foundation to support digitalisation, integrating ESG performance assessments, and enhancing accountability through standardised, verifiable disclosure of audit findings and corrective action plans.
If it passes, the framework will position Zimbabwe as a pioneer in structured, principle-based mining oversight, demonstrating a commitment to a mining sector that operates responsibly, sustainably, and transparently, and sending a strong warning that non-compliance will no longer be tolerated.
