Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

As artificial intelligence reshapes mineral exploration globally, helping companies uncover major copper, lithium and other critical mineral deposits faster than ever before, Zimbabwe is increasingly turning its attention to a challenge industry leaders say has been neglected for decades: finding the next generation of mineral discoveries needed to sustain mining-led economic growth, Mining Zimbabwe can report.

By Ryan Chigoche

With mining expected to remain one of Zimbabwe’s most important sources of export earnings, investment and economic growth, policymakers are increasingly turning their attention to a question that will determine the sector’s future: where the next generation of mineral deposits will come from.

The urgency of that challenge was underscored by the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Dr Polite Kambamura, who argued that long-term growth in the industry depends on a renewed focus on exploration.

“Every tonne of ore exported today must eventually be replaced through new discoveries and expanded resource definition. Zimbabwe remains underexplored by modern international standards,” Kambamura told a packed Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe conference in Victoria Falls recently.

The warning comes as governments and mining companies worldwide embrace technologies that are dramatically changing how mineral deposits are discovered. Artificial intelligence and machine-learning systems are increasingly being used to analyse vast amounts of geological, geophysical and drilling data, allowing exploration companies to identify promising targets in a fraction of the time traditionally required.

KoBold Metals, backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and T. Rowe Price, is among the companies leading that shift. The firm is using machine learning to analyse more than five decades of geological data across Africa to identify mineral deposits that could otherwise take years to locate through conventional exploration methods.

Its projects include a proposed US$2.3 billion copper mine in Zambia and a US$1 billion lithium development in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Burundi, the company is helping to digitise the country’s entire geological archive, unlocking exploration data that has never before been readily accessible.

For Zimbabwe, however, the significance of such developments extends beyond the technology itself.

A Policy Challenge More Than a Geological One

Industry experts argue that Zimbabwe’s exploration deficit has less to do with geology than with policy and investment conditions.

Following independence, significant systematic exploration resumed after economic liberalisation opened the sector to international mining companies with access to capital, technology and modern exploration techniques.

Over roughly a decade, the industry witnessed the recognition and development of major mineral deposits, including Ayrshire, Connemara, Eureka, Giant, Freda Rebecca, Indarama, Isabella, Pickstone, Royal Family, Turkey and Vubachikwe, many of which had previously been regarded as relatively small deposits.

The same period saw new discoveries at Maligreen, Ipanema and Hungwe, while the Kanyemba uranium deposit was identified and Hartley Platinum Mine was commissioned.

However, exploration activity slowed significantly after 2000 as economic and political challenges reduced investment and curtailed large-scale exploration programmes.

The contrast, according to industry observers, demonstrates the extent to which policy can influence mineral discovery.

“Given an environment that encourages exploration, this country has unlimited opportunities for mineral discoveries,” one industry expert noted.

Experts frequently describe Zimbabwe’s known mineral resources as the visible tip of a much larger iceberg. While the country is already recognised as one of Africa’s leading mining jurisdictions, they argue that currently identified deposits likely represent only a small fraction of its total mineral endowment.

That reality has important implications for long-term mining growth.

Without continued exploration, existing mines eventually deplete their reserves, reducing future production capacity and limiting opportunities for new investment. It also threatens the sustainability of beneficiation and value-addition initiatives, which depend on a reliable pipeline of mineral resources to secure long-term feedstock supplies.

Building the Foundations for Discovery

Recognising the challenge, the government plans to undertake a national airborne geophysical survey incorporating aeromagnetic and electromagnetic mapping technologies to improve geological understanding and identify new mineral targets.

Kambamura said authorities are also strengthening the Geological Survey Department and improving geological data management systems to make information more accessible to investors and exploration companies.

The initiatives are intended to stimulate private-sector exploration spending while improving the quality of geological information available to the market.

Industry analysts say such investments could prove increasingly important as artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into mineral exploration.

While AI has demonstrated its ability to accelerate discoveries, its effectiveness depends heavily on the quality and availability of geological data. Machine-learning models require extensive datasets, including geological maps, geophysical surveys, drilling records and historical exploration results, to generate meaningful predictions.

In that regard, Zimbabwe’s planned geophysical surveys and geological data modernisation efforts could provide a critical foundation for future exploration.

Yet experts caution that technology alone will not guarantee success.

While artificial intelligence may help identify mineral targets faster, the broader economic benefits of new discoveries depend on the policy framework that governs exploration, mine development and mineral processing.

Exploration, they argue, is only the first step. The greater challenge lies in ensuring discoveries translate into investment, jobs, downstream industries and long-term economic value.

As countries across Africa race to modernise geological databases and attract exploration capital, Zimbabwe’s own history offers an important lesson: when policies encourage exploration, discoveries follow.

The question now is whether the country can create the data, investment and regulatory environment needed to unlock what may still be a largely hidden mineral resource base.

• Compliance Non-Negotiable, Says RBZ Deputy Governor as Lithium Sector Comes Under Spotlight

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has issued a stern warning to the mining sector, declaring that compliance with export regulations is non-negotiable as it moves to tighten oversight of the lithium industry and ensure the country receives fair value for its mineral wealth, Deputy Governor Dr Innocent Matshe has said.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Speaking at the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference in Victoria Falls, Dr Matshe delivered a robust defence of government policy interventions, including the February 2026 suspension of raw mineral and lithium concentrate exports, which he said was “not because of a lack of reason” but was driven by legitimate national interest concerns.

“Sometimes when we say policy changes unexpectedly, I think it’s slightly misplaced,” Dr Matshe said. “When we saw, in February 2026, the Minister of Mines suspending the export of all raw minerals and lithium concentrates, it was not because of a lack of reason. It was because there was concern that the measure needed to be be taken in the national interest, and it reaffirmed government’s commitment to transparency, in-country value addition, beneficiation, compliance and accountability.”

The Deputy Governor revealed that Zimbabwe exported 1.5 million tonnes of lithium in 2025, generating US$488 million. However, he noted that 2026 has already seen remarkable progress, with US$205 million collected to date, representing a significant acceleration in revenue generation.

Lithium has emerged as the country’s third-largest export commodity, and Dr Matshe described this as “a welcome development that the industry is developing this quickly, and it will go a long way towards supporting macroeconomic stability.”

While acknowledging that the lithium sector is “largely compliant” with RBZ measures, Dr Matshe outlined several compliance gaps that remain a concern for the central bank.

These include overdue export receipts currently standing at US$15.8 million, the non-alignment of export documents, and the issuance of credit notes that complicate the tracking of mineral movements. Transfer pricing through related parties and the undervaluation of exports were also identified as persistent challenges.

“Most countries publish their import data, and we take it that the import data is accurate. So when we reconcile any source of import data in a second country with our export data and they don’t tally, it’s already a red flag,” Dr Matshe said. “The Reserve Bank will go to each and every export destination to make sure that our data ties.”

Surrender Requirements and ‘Recycling’ Concerns

Addressing the issue of foreign currency surrender requirements, under which exporters must surrender 30 percent of their earnings to the central bank, Dr Matshe reiterated that the framework is “key to distributing foreign currency in our economy.”

However, he raised concerns about what he termed “surrender recycling,” where companies convert their surrendered funds back into foreign currency through the willing-buyer willing-seller market.

“As soon as companies receive their surrender, they go to the willing-buyer willing-seller market and turn that into foreign currency, and who knows what happens with that,” he said. “It’s important for the Reserve Bank to then trace where that foreign currency goes and how it is utilised.”

The Deputy Governor emphasised that the RBZ does not control the exchange rate, contrary to popular perception.

“We publish data on a quarterly basis in the centre spread of all major daily newspapers in this country. If there is an actuary or a practitioner in data science, I invite them to come and look at the data,” he said.

Border Challenges and Document Fraud

Dr Matshe also shed light on operational challenges at the country’s borders, describing a pattern of suspicious behaviour.

“When our teams from compliance get to the border, all the contracts disappear. When they go to lunch, you will find a mile-long queue. When they come back from lunch, they all disappear again,” he said.

He noted that dismantling falsified export documentation and combating connivance with buyers remain key priorities for the central bank’s compliance teams.

Despite the tough rhetoric, Dr Matshe struck a conciliatory tone, emphasising that the RBZ maintains an open-door policy for industry engagement.

“The Reserve Bank continues to implement enhanced compliance measures, but it keeps its doors open to all of us and assures everyone that it operates an open-door policy, particularly for our associations,” he said.

Zimbabwe’s coal producers are ready to invest in their own trains to unlock export markets, but approvals from state entities remain elusive, former chairman of the Coal Producers Association, Linos Masimura, has said.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Linos Masimura, who is also a shareholder at Zambezi Gas, told the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference’s Coal, Oil and Gas Symposium that producers have been pushing to acquire rolling stock since 2023, only to be frustrated by a cycle of approvals and cancellations.

“Myself in particular have got a project that we have been running which should have trains on the road, helping our production make its way to the ports and to customers in bulk,” Masimura said.

“But at the moment, we then engage NRZ, we then engage the shareholder for NRZ. But what has been delaying us from starting is the approvals. There are no approvals for us to start.”

He stressed that producers do not expect the government to fund the initiative.

“We need the trains, and we don’t expect someone else to come and invest for us. We have to do it ourselves, and we are ready to do so,” he said.

Production Slumps as ZESA Orders Fall

Masimura also highlighted a sharp decline in domestic demand, with ZPC orders dropping from around 250,000 tonnes per month to between 100,000 and 150,000 tonnes.

“At the moment, the local uptake of coal in power generation Units 1 to 6 is a bit low,” he said. “So, in the end, it also influences the total amount of coal that can be produced because 50 to 60 percent of our coal goes into power generation. When there’s a slowdown in Units 1 to 6, there’s naturally going to be a slowdown in production as well.”

The reduced offtake from Hwange’s older units, which have faced persistent operational challenges, has forced producers to scale back operations. Zambezi Gas, which started full mining operations in March 2025 and has since doubled production from 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes per month, now sells 50 percent of its coal to ZPC.

New Technology Offers Cleaner Coal Pathway

Masimura also spoke about the industry’s environmental trajectory, pointing to integrated technologies such as coal-to-products (CFP), which can eliminate waste while keeping emissions below well-established standards.

“Power generation and cement making into one plant, and you can use CFP technology to produce all your products in an integrated way where there’s no waste in terms of physical waste, but at the same time you are producing well below wellbeing standards in terms of emissions,” he said.

“These new technologies are helping to achieve that sustainability as well as cleaning up coal operations.”

With domestic demand constrained and export ambitions stalled by bureaucratic inertia, Masimura’s message was clear: coal producers are willing to invest in their own future, but they need the regulatory green light to do so.

Martin Ma, China Representative Director of the International Lithium Association (ILiA), has called on Zimbabwe to develop domestic lithium processing capacity to capture greater value from its rapidly growing mining sector, Mining Zimbabwe can report.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Speaking at the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference Lithium Symposium, Ma, who was visiting Zimbabwe and Africa for the first time, said, “Seeing is believing,” and what he witnessed in the local industry explains why Zimbabwe’s lithium sector has expanded so rapidly in recent years.

Ma presented a global supply chain map showing that East Asia, led by China, Japan and South Korea, dominates EV and battery manufacturing, with China being the world’s largest producer of lithium chemicals. Europe is moving slowly on battery manufacturing capacity, while the Americas are largely driven by Tesla. This concentration, he argued, makes restructuring the lithium supply chain urgent.

He noted that Zimbabwe’s spodumene supply has grown remarkably over the past three years. Currently, lithium is sourced from hard rock (spodumene and lepidolite) and brine, with lepidolite being low-grade and costly to process, making local processing the most suitable option. China remains the leading refiner, but Australia and Zimbabwe are expected to increase their refining capacity gradually.

Ma recalled that when he joined a lithium company in the 1990s, global lithium carbonate equivalent demand was below 100,000 tonnes. Last year, it reached approximately 1.6 million tonnes, and demand is expected to continue growing.

He divided the new energy supply chain into upstream (mining and lithium salts), midstream (cathodes, batteries, separators, anodes and electrolytes), and downstream (OEMs). He noted that while only cathodes and electrolytes currently consume lithium, the emergence of solid-state batteries could change that.

Challenges of Moving Up the Value Chain

Shifting from exporting ore to producing battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide changes the customer base entirely—from traders to cathode manufacturers, battery producers and OEMs. These high-end customers require rigorous quality management systems and ESG standards, with qualification processes taking between six and 12 months, or even longer for premium clients.

Ma pointed to Europe’s Critical Raw Materials Act, which requires at least 40% of refining capacity to come from external sources, describing it as a clear opportunity for Zimbabwe given its proximity to Europe. Morocco was also highlighted as a potential partner due to its phosphate resources and trade ties with Europe.

He outlined several success factors:

• Partnering with technical providers, as Chinese companies can supply mature technology and equipment.
• Maintaining sustainable government policies and regulatory compliance.
• Securing long-term off-take agreements with battery manufacturers and OEMs, including their investment in projects.
• Accessing financial backing. Ecobank, for instance, has deployed US$369 million to mining operators and related businesses between 2021 and 2025.
• Strengthening industry collaboration. ILiA has published carbon footprint guidance already adopted by OEMs, which can help smaller producers meet global standards.

As Zimbabwe advances its beneficiation strategy, Ma stressed that long-term success will depend not only on ore quality but also on the ability to meet evolving global standards—a challenge that also presents a historic opportunity.

Makomo Resources has planted more than 800,000 trees since 2010 under a programme that sees the company plant one tree for every tonne of coal extracted, director Raymond Mutokonyi has revealed.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Speaking at the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference’s Coal, Oil and Gas Symposium, Mutokonyi said the initiative forms part of the company’s broader environmental, social and governance strategy to mitigate the carbon footprint of its mining operations.

“As part of our programme, we’ve also introduced, for every tonne of coal that we take out of the ground, we plant a tree every time,” Mutokonyi said. “So since 2010, we’ve planted in excess of 800,000 trees as part of carbon offsetting.”

Makomo Resources, which emerged in 2013 as Zimbabwe’s largest coal producer, contributing 74.5 percent of total production, operates on 7,000 hectares of the Entuba coalfields, about 17 kilometres from Hwange in Matabeleland North, with a mine life of 30 years and underground resources sufficient for operations for over 100 years. The company has invested over US$200 million in operations since commencing operations.

Self-monitoring over regulatory enforcement

Mutokonyi emphasised that companies should not wait to be monitored by regulators but should take charge of their environmental responsibilities proactively.

“Companies don’t need to be monitored to effect what is required of them,” he said. “Naturally, they should take charge of that area and do self-monitoring. Regulatory experience has shown us that once you’re involved in mining activity, you have to follow the right things to do.”

He noted that while policies are in place, the challenge lies in practical application rather than the regulatory framework itself.

ESG investment in Hwange community

When pressed on the company’s investment towards reducing emissions following a recent Oxpecker report on pollution affecting Hwange residents, Mutokonyi said Makomo has allocated a portion of its ESG funds to sustainable energy initiatives coordinated through the Hwange community.

“Our contribution has largely been in educating and allocating resources towards the general outlook and development of Hwange,” he said. “We invest a portion of our ESG funds in sustainable energy, and that’s coordinated through the Hwange community.”

The company has been working with various stakeholders, including the Hwange Local Board, ZimParks, and the Ministry of Health, as part of its community engagement efforts.

Infrastructure and logistics challenges

Mutokonyi also addressed the sector’s transport challenges, noting that Makomo previously invested in locomotives through a tripartite arrangement but struggled due to the economic climate at the time. He called for greater private sector participation in rail infrastructure development.

“If we can get more locomotives and wagons on the rail network, they’ll move freight onto wagons as opposed to road transport,” he said. “Companies, as part of their ESG, should put a portion of their resources into infrastructure development — PPPs, that’s the route to go.”

Makomo currently supplies coal to the Zimbabwe Power Company for electricity generation at Hwange Thermal Power Station, as well as to other clients domestically and internationally. The company has the capacity to produce over 200,000 tonnes of coal per month.

The company successfully exited corporate rescue in March 2025 after two years, having regained financial stability. Mutokonyi described the process as having played a critical role in stabilising the coal producer after it voluntarily entered corporate rescue.

With production ramping up and the tree-planting programme continuing, Makomo is positioning itself as a responsible operator while maintaining its status as Zimbabwe’s dominant coal producer.

LISTING on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) has been a game-changer for Kavango Resources, enabling the London-headquartered mining junior to raise nearly US$14 million, predominantly from local pension funds, as it develops its Hillside gold project in Zimbabwe’s historic Filabusi Greenstone Belt, the company’s Chief Operating Officer has revealed.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Speaking at the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference Gold Symposium sponsored by Mutapa Gold Resources, Kavango Resources COO and Executive Director Alex Gorman shared the company’s journey from acquiring an existing mine to declaring JORC-compliant resources and tapping into local capital markets.

“Hillside is Kavango’s first 100%-owned gold project in Zimbabwe and the foundation of its broader production strategy in the country,” Gorman said. Located in the Filabusi Greenstone Belt, the project is positioned across a major regional deformation zone typically associated with shear-hosted gold deposits.

From existing mine to JORC resources

Kavango took on Hillside about three years ago, acquiring an existing underground mine and processing centre that had operated on a small scale for approximately 100 years. Since then, the company has completed about 10 kilometres of reverse circulation and diamond drilling, leading to the declaration of two JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimates.

In October 2025, Kavango announced a preliminary JORC-compliant resource of 20,000 ounces of gold at the Nightshift Prospect, with 11,000 ounces in the Indicated category and 9,000 ounces in the Inferred category. Then, in February 2026, the company declared a maiden resource of 33,900 ounces at Bill’s Luck Gold Mine, bringing the total JORC-compliant resource at Hillside to 52,900 ounces.

“The JORC MRE reports a total resource of 20,000 ounces of gold at 0.86 grams per tonne,” the company announced at the time.

Artisanal miners as exploration vectors

Gorman highlighted an unconventional but highly effective exploration tool the company has employed — working with artisanal miners operating on their claims.

“What we found particularly helpful is that we have artisanal miners working on our claims, whom we work with and use as an exploration vector,” she said. “These guys know rocks better than geologists. They’re fantastic.”

Kavango has been able to map the artisanal miners’ shafts and link their observations with underground geological data to better understand how the mineralised system is forming in the area.

Gorman suggested this approach could be scaled up nationally. “We have all these pockets of very important information. If you could join all the artisanal knowledge together into some kind of mapping system, that would be extremely interesting,” she said.

The funding challenge and VFEX solution

“For any junior miner, the number one challenge is funding,” Gorman said. “Prior to our VFEX listing, it wasn’t super easy to raise capital for exploration in Zimbabwe from the London markets.”

The company listed on the VFEX by way of introduction in September 2025, with trading commencing on September 8, 2025, while retaining its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

“The VFEX listing serves as a secondary venue to broaden investor access, while the company maintains its primary LSE listing,” VFEX Head of Markets Robert Mubaiwa confirmed at the time.

The listing proved hugely successful. Kavango raised just under US$14 million — predominantly from pension funds. Today, the company boasts 16 pension fund investors, several asset managers, and a significant number of retail investors investing anywhere from US$100 to US$10,000.

“We’ve been really pleased that we’ve been able to bring that capital together to help develop what we’re doing at Hillside,” Gorman said.

Building a local investor base

The VFEX listing has opened up Kavango to Zimbabwean investors, who can now hold shares locally, trade them on the VFEX, or transfer them to the LSE through the branch register control account. Key allocations included shares to a consortium of local pension funds, Zimbabwean retail investors, and employee share awards distributed among staff.

Kavango currently produces around 2 kilogrammes of gold per month from small-scale operations at Hillside. The company is now focused on commissioning a 50-tonne-per-day pilot carbon-in-pulp gold processing plant at Bill’s Luck Mine, expected in the second quarter of 2026, with plans to scale up to 250 tonnes per day.

Gorman acknowledged that international investors have had preconceptions about Zimbabwe but said the company is working hard to dispel these alongside other players such as Caledonia.

“Investors are always worried about regulatory uncertainty,” she said. “What we have found is we listed on the VFEX in September of last year, and it has been hugely successful.”

Gorman echoed earlier calls from the Geological Society of Zimbabwe for better regional geological understanding and data accessibility. She noted that Kavango is participating in the East African Exploration Initiative to conduct large-scale mineral systems work.

“You can understand what’s happening at a small scale by first understanding what’s happening at the regional scale, and that is how you will find your large-scale mines,” she said.

The company hopes to reach free cash flow at Hillside and then use that to develop its larger exploration projects through traditional methods, including soil sampling, trenching, and drilling.

The current proven gas in Mzarabani could power a 500-megawatt power station for 1,000 years, according to Paul Chimbodza, founder and managing director of Geo Associates, as the scale of Zimbabwe’s Cabora Bassa Basin discovery begins to sink in, Mining Zimbabwe can report.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Two wells. Seven kilometres apart. A licence area spanning 360,000 hectares. And according to Chimbodza, speaking at the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference, the project has barely scratched the surface.

“If you just suppose that with a licence area that is 360,000 hectares, what it says is we have barely scratched the surface,” Chimbodza said. “The two wells, Mukuyu 1 and Mukuyu 2, seven kilometres apart, in a licence area as big as this room, we’ve just scratched the corner.”

Independent estimates rank the broader Mukuyu prospect’s potential at up to 20 trillion cubic feet of gas and 845 million barrels of conventional gas condensate, equating to approximately 4.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent on a gross mean unrisked basis.

One trillion cubic feet of gas can power a 500-megawatt power station for 50 years. At 20 Tcf, that same plant could run for 1,000 years.

The broader Cabora Bassa Basin is estimated to hold about 1.38 billion barrels of oil and condensate, worth approximately US$90 billion at current prices. Wood Mackenzie ranked the Mukuyu discovery as sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest petroleum find of 2023.

PROJECT DECADES IN THE MAKING

The Mzarabani project is licensed under Geo Associates, with Invictus Energy – an Australian-listed company – holding 80 percent and One Gas Resources holding the remaining 20 percent.

The initial licence area of 100,000 hectares has since been expanded to 360,000 hectares through collaboration with the Mutapa Investment Fund.

Chimbodza noted that Mobil had explored the area for about 10 years, leaving behind seismic data that Geo Associates has reinterpreted using modern computing power and software.

“That’s all we did with the Mobil data,” he said. “We subjected it to new techniques, new resolution, and we started picking up what Mobil couldn’t pick up then.”

The company has generated more than a dozen drill-ready targets across the licence area. “In our case, we are spoiled for choice on where to drill,” Chimbodza said.

MARKET FINALLY EXISTS

Chimbodza noted that while Mobil had explored the area some 40 years ago, the project was never developed because there was no market for gas at the time.

“If you go back 40 years ago, the gas market was non-existent,” he said. “Even in our homes 40 years ago, no one was using cooking gas. Fast forward to today, there is a huge market, not only in Zimbabwe but in the region.”

REGULATORY BREAKTHROUGH

In May 2026, Invictus Energy signed a Petroleum Production Sharing Agreement with the Zimbabwean Government through Geo Associates, establishing the legal and fiscal framework governing oil and gas exploration, production, and revenue sharing.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube described the Cabora Bassa project as a “strategic national undertaking” capable of reshaping Zimbabwe’s economy through energy security, industrialisation, and employment creation.

The PPSA adopts a hybrid model allowing Government to receive its share either in cash or in petroleum products, using a sliding-scale model tied to project returns.

WHAT COMES NEXT

Invictus plans to commence appraisal activities at the Mukuyu Gas Field in 2026 to delineate the field’s size and reservoir quality. The company is also preparing to drill the Musuma-1 exploration well in the second half of 2026, targeting an estimated 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas and 73 million barrels of condensate.

A pilot gas-to-power project is already in motion, with initial generating capacity set at 12MW and potential expansion to 50MW, supplying electricity to Dallaglio Investments’ Eureka Gold Mine.

The project has also confirmed the presence of highly valuable commercial helium as a secondary by-product.

Two wells drilled. A dozen more targets waiting. A resource that could power a 500-megawatt plant for a millennium. And a regulatory framework now in place.

As Chimbodza put it: “We’ve just scratched the corner.”

ZIMBABWE urgently needs to embrace the Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) system to give geologists the room they need to make world-class discoveries, with the country’s last national geological map dating back to 1977 and exploration data lagging far behind regional peers, the Geological Society of Zimbabwe (GSZ) has said.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Speaking at the Chamber of Mines Annual Conference, GSZ Membership Secretary and Special Programmes Coordinator Gayle Hanssen, a geologist with nearly 40 years of experience, made a passionate case for the EPO system as the foundation for serious mineral exploration.

“You need big ground to look at and you need big information, so that is, of course, our EPO system that the geologists very, very much like,” Hanssen said. “We are definitely advocates for the EPO system.”

Maligreen discovery proves EPO value

Hanssen drew on her personal experience with the discovery of the Maligreen deposit to illustrate why EPOs are essential.

“Having been involved in the discovery of Maligreen, we actually looked at 300 square kilometres and that covered five contiguous EPOs, and we found a one-million-ounce deposit,” she revealed.

“You need a big ground area to narrow down into that and that took us a period of nine years – a full EPO, three plus three plus three. This takes a long period of time.”

She noted that World Bank statistics suggest it takes an average of 12 years to discover a one-million-ounce deposit, meaning even the current EPO system’s maximum six-year term is barely sufficient.

EPOs get recycled, data returns to government

Hanssen explained that exploration is rarely a first-time success.

“The worldwide statistic is that two and a half companies tend to look at the ground prior to discovery. So these EPOs get recycled, and the information goes back into the government resource, which is the Geological Survey of Zimbabwe,” she said.

She described the Geological Survey as the country’s “data repository”, containing “fantastic information, including handwritten reports from the 1890s” – but stressed the urgent need for digitisation.

“We would like it to be a bit more accessible. We need it to be a bit more digital so that people around the world can look at our information,” Hanssen said.

Aeromagnetic data critical for attracting investment

Hanssen recalled how a national aeromagnetic survey at one-kilometre spacing in the 1990s drew significant exploration interest.

“Within about five years of that survey being completed, many companies accessed ground on that,” she said.

However, she warned that Zimbabwe is falling behind its neighbours.

“Zambia, Congo, Namibia, and Angola have or are currently flying their countries at 100 to 300 metres spacing – three times more resolution than what we have in our country – and it makes a phenomenal difference to ground selection,” Hanssen said.

Potential beyond greenstone belts

While acknowledging that most of Zimbabwe’s gold has historically come from the country’s 22 Archean greenstone belts, which have produced over 60 million ounces of gold, Hanssen urged exploration beyond these traditional areas.

“Forbes says our gold is all in the greenstone belts. There’s gold elsewhere in the world, and there are very big discoveries being made in different formations. I do believe that we have potential in those domains as well,” she said.

She noted that Zimbabwe currently has only one one-million-ounce deposit outside the greenstone belts – Renco Mine in the Limpopo Mobile Belt.

Retaining talent, building research capacity

Hanssen raised concerns about brain drain in the geological profession.

“Zimbabwe exports some of the best geologists in Africa, but I also believe that we need to remain current because many of our people are outside the country,” she said.

She pointed to Ghana’s successful industry-funded research and development programme over the past 15 to 20 years as a model Zimbabwe could emulate.

“We need to know the ages of our rocks in Zimbabwe. It’s not necessarily just assays that we go on; it’s many other things for us to understand our geological potential,” Hanssen said.

“We need to see a whole lot more people at doctorate and professor level for our research and development – and those are the people, along with government aeromagnetic projects, that drive investment.”

African capital for African exploration

Hanssen challenged the notion that junior mining companies are solely a Western stock exchange phenomenon.

“Juniors are not a Western stock exchange thing; it’s available risk capital. Even if we talk about juniors, we’re not talking about just the Toronto Stock Exchange, we are talking about African investments in African countries,” she said.

“There’s a lot of money in Africa. I look at the Copperbelt a bit – there’s money up there that’s also looking for gold investment opportunities outside copper investment.”

Her remarks come as the Government moves to review the EPO framework, with the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill currently before Parliament seeking to address concerns about EPOs and introduce frameworks that enable small-scale miners to be formally recognised.

The GSZ has been at the forefront of advocating for exploration reform, with the society’s 2025 Summer Symposium highlighting how the suspension of EPOs since the early 2000s has stalled new large-scale discoveries, driven skills migration, and fuelled informal mining.