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Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the pivotal role of the next generation of engineers were the key issues raised at the recent annual symposium hosted by the Zimbabwe National Institute of Rock Engineering (ZINIRE) at the Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls on Friday, Mining Zimbabwe can report.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

The event, which served as a critical nexus for industry veterans, suppliers, and academia, was overwhelmingly defined by a palpable shift towards digitalisation, driven by the innovative contributions of young professionals.

The consensus among leadership and attendees was clear: the future of Zimbabwean mining is being written in code and algorithms, and it is the country’s emerging talent that is leading this technological revolution to solve perennial challenges like rock support design and fall-of-ground incidents.

Speaking to Mining Zimbabwe on the sidelines of the symposium, ZINIRE President, Mr. Omberai Mandingaisa, set a tone of profound optimism and acknowledgement for the fresh perspectives brought to the fore and highlighted that the event marked a significant milestone in the industry’s ongoing evolution.

“The involvement of youngsters that are in college, that are our upcoming rock engineers and the future of the mining industry, has been exceptional,” stated Mandingaisa. “They have brought up so many presentations that have to do with applications of AI into rock support, applications of AI into the design of support systems and all the applications of new technology, new state-of-the-art equipment. This has come at a stage where the mining industry in Zimbabwe is being revolutionised.”

This sentiment underscores a strategic pivot. For an industry historically grounded in empirical methods and experience-based judgement, the enthusiastic embrace of data-driven technologies by students and young professionals signals a foundational change in how rock engineering challenges will be approached in the decades to come.

The Technical Imperative of AI and ML in Rock Engineering

The presentations delivered by the young professionals moved beyond theoretical discussion, delving into specific technical applications that are poised to enhance safety and efficiency. The core technical issues addressed revolved around several key areas:

1. AI-Powered Rock Mass Characterisation and Classification: Traditional methods like the Rock Mass Rating (RMR) or Q-system, while effective, involve a degree of subjectivity and are time-consuming. Engineers and service providers presented research on using convolutional neural networks (CNNs)—a class of deep learning algorithms—to analyse digital images and LiDAR point cloud data of rock faces. These systems can be trained to automatically identify discontinuities, joints, fractures, and rock types, calculating parameters such as roughness, persistence, and spacing with superhuman consistency and speed. This leads to a more objective, rapid, and continuous assessment of ground conditions, allowing for real-time adjustments to support plans.

2. Machine Learning for Predictive Analysis of Fall-of-Ground (FOG): This was a recurring and critical theme. Fall of ground remains a primary safety risk in underground mining. Presentations focused on using machine learning models for predictive maintenance and hazard forecasting. By feeding historical and real-time sensor data—from microseismic monitoring systems, stress meters, extensometers, and even drone-based photogrammetry—into algorithms like recurrent neural networks (RNNs) or support vector machines (SVMs), models can learn to identify subtle precursor patterns that human analysts might miss. These systems can then provide early warning signals of impending instability, predicting the probability of a FOG event with a significantly higher lead time, thereby enabling pre-emptive intervention and evacuation.

3. Optimisation of Support System Design: The design of ground support systems, including bolt patterns, shotcrete thickness, and cable bolt density, is a complex engineering problem influenced by a multitude of variables. Young professionals showcased work on using generative design algorithms and reinforcement learning. Instead of a single solution, AI can generate thousands of viable support design options based on desired outcomes (e.g., maximum safety factor, minimal material cost). The algorithm iteratively learns which combinations of parameters are most effective, optimising the design for both safety and economic efficiency in ways that were previously computationally prohibitive.

4. Interoperability and Data Standardisation – The Hidden Challenge: A more nuanced technical issue raised, often implicitly, was the challenge of data infrastructure. For AI/ML models to be effective, they require vast amounts of clean, standardised, and labelled data. A significant hurdle for the industry is the legacy of siloed data systems—where geological data, geotechnical monitoring data, and production data exist in separate formats and databases. Several presentations touched on the need for integrated data platforms and standardised protocols (akin to ISO standards for data exchange in mining) to fully unlock the potential of these advanced analytics tools. This highlights a sophisticated understanding among the youth that the technology is not just about the model itself, but the entire data ecosystem that supports it.

A Platform for Networking, Commerce, and Career Development

The symposium’s value extended beyond pure academia, serving as a vital commercial and professional nexus. Mr. Wayne Mudamburi, President of the Association of Junior Mining Professionals of Zimbabwe, emphasised this multifaceted role.

“The importance of ZINIRE is that it’s giving us a platform to actually network and it’s giving suppliers the platform to present their goods,” Mudamburi noted. “And then the mines can actually choose the best support elements that they want from these suppliers… it’s also giving the young rock engineers an opportunity to showcase themselves.”

This ecosystem is crucial for technological adoption. Suppliers showcasing state-of-the-art equipment—from smart bolts with embedded sensors to advanced drone-based monitoring solutions—provide the tangible tools that make the algorithms useful. The direct interaction between mines (the end-users), suppliers (the tool providers), and young engineers (the innovators and future operators) creates a powerful feedback loop that accelerates the practical implementation of research.

Shaping Minds and Aligning Futures

For the individual attendee, the impact was deeply personal and professional. Ope Muranda, Vice President of the Association of Junior Mining Professionals of Zimbabwe, articulated how the symposium is shaping the career trajectories of young professionals.

“As an individual, I’m gaining knowledge on how important the rock engineering department is to the mining industry as a whole,” Muranda said. “And also it’s helping me in shaping my future and shaping my direction, my thinking, my mind and also trying to align my goals to what I actually want.”

This speaks to the event’s role in not only disseminating knowledge but also in inspiring and focusing the ambitions of the next generation, ensuring the long-term health and innovation capacity of the field.

The Inevitable Future: Embracing the Digital Shift

Perhaps the most powerful takeaway, echoed by Muranda and many others, was the sense of inevitability and urgency surrounding this technological shift.

“The key takeaways from this was basically, there’s no way we are going to run away from artificial intelligence, machine learning, because the world, the future is artificial intelligence. The future in mining is going to be machine learning,” Muranda asserted. “So one way or the other, we need to, we are going to be forced to embrace and adopt machine learning and artificial intelligence… it’s about time that we take it serious and learn to implement it.”

This is no longer a question of if but how quickly the industry can adapt. The ZINIRE symposium demonstrated that Zimbabwe’s young rock engineers are not waiting to be forced; they are actively leading the charge, acquiring the skills, developing the applications, and building the networks necessary to ensure the domestic mining industry is not left behind but is instead at the forefront of this global transformation.

A Confluence of Talent and Technology

The annual ZINIRE symposium successfully illuminated the path forward for rock engineering in Zimbabwe. It was a powerful demonstration that the industry’s future is in capable hands. The fusion of youthful innovation with cutting-edge technology like AI and ML is creating a new paradigm for mine safety and efficiency.

As President Mandingaisa concluded, the goal is to “manage fall of ground” and other critical challenges. With the passion displayed by the young professionals and the powerful tools they are mastering, the symposium made it clear that this goal is increasingly within reach. The event was not merely a conference but a declaration: a new, digital era for Zimbabwean mining has begun, and its architects are already hard at work.

With informalisation remaining high and funding access limited, partnerships between the government, financial institutions, and the private sector have been identified as key to the formalisation of women in ASM as well as expanding their access to finance, Mining Zimbabwe reports.

By Ryan Chigoche

This was one of the key takeaways at the ongoing Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) Gender Equality and Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Capacity Building and Strategy Workshop, where several SADC women in mining associations gathered to chart a way forward towards a formalised, gender-inclusive ASM sector.

Over the years, women in ASM and other marginalised groups have struggled to access funding from financial institutions. This is largely because banks often lack knowledge of how ASM permitting and revenue cycles work, resulting in loans that are not tailored for the industry. At the same time, women miners may not fully understand the benefits of formalisation, limiting their ability to qualify for financing and expand operations.

Faced with this challenge, IGF Senior Policy Advisor Ege Tekinbas, in an interview with Mining Zimbabwe, urged governments, financial institutions, and large-scale mining (LSM) companies to work together to improve access to finance for women in ASM in Zimbabwe and across the SADC region.

“We believe that there could be some collaboration, some programs that could help realising these policies, implementing these policies through also infrastructure and support from LSM. If the dialogue can be enhanced between those three different types of stakeholders, they can better understand, women miners can understand the financial instruments better, they can understand better how women are struggling to access those instruments, and the government stakeholders can also understand how to better work across those three different groups of people,” Tekinbas said.

Strengthening partnerships between governments, financial institutions, and LSM companies is seen as a key solution, not only to expand financing options but also to provide infrastructure, mentorship, and technical support that enable women miners to formalise operations and improve productivity.

Beyond financing, the IGF, which supports 68 member countries, including Zimbabwe, also highlighted other challenges, including limited technical training, gaps in data collection, and insufficient government support for capacity-building programs.

Adding to that, other key issues identified were restrictive cultural norms and beliefs that limit women’s participation, and complex formalisation requirements that make it difficult to operate legally.

Gender-based violence in ASM was also flagged as a critical concern, highlighting the need for coordinated action across stakeholders.

The IGF Zimbabwe workshop is expected to feed into a regional policy framework, or “white paper,” aimed at promoting more equitable participation of women in ASM.

In Zimbabwe, women make up roughly 10–15% of the ASM workforce, with higher participation in some SADC countries.

The Deputy Director of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (ZELO), Shamiso Mtisi, has said investment and sustainable development in the mining sector are inseparable “twins” that must work together for the benefit of the economy, communities, and the environment, Mining Zimbabwe can report.

By Rudairo Mapuranga

Speaking at the Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba (ZAMI), Mtisi said while mining companies often showcase their corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects like building schools, it is crucial to create platforms for communities to voice their concerns over environmental degradation and pollution.

“Definitely, mining companies will be able to share their corporate social responsibility activities and programmes. But at the same time, communities will also share some of their experiences when it comes to some of the areas where there is need to improve,” Mtisi said.

“When it comes to environmental degradation, pollution of rivers and also issues to do with how mining companies can plough back into the communities… that’s quite important. So those discussions will definitely help us in shaping different policies and laws in the country.”

He revealed that ZELO has been working closely with the Ministry of Mines to refine the long-awaited Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill. The ZAMI platform, he said, is designed to help investors understand the expectations of communities for responsible investment.

“Zimbabwe is definitely in need of responsible investments and there is need for all stakeholders to advance responsible investments discussions in the country,” Mtisi stated, endorsing the government’s “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra while stressing the need for sustainability.

Addressing the link between profitability and responsibility, Mtisi argued that they are not mutually exclusive.

“If you mine sustainably, you are likely to also generate good profits, you will also be improving the lives of people, you will also be protecting the environment as a miner. So I take investments, sustainable development as twins, things that move together,” he said.

With many new businesses entering the country, Mtisi emphasised the urgency of encouraging responsible and sustainable practices in the mining sector.

On the perennial issue of illegal mining, Mtisi called for a nuanced approach, suggesting a move towards formalisation. He proposed categorising artisanal miners and providing them with the necessary support to operate within the law.

“For us as an organisation, formalisation of artisanal mining is very, very key… through categorising different levels of payments or certificates that can be given to individuals or cooperatives,” he said.

“Then the other thing is to provide the artisanal miners or small-scale miners with equipment, finance, and other supportive infrastructure… For us, we believe that it’s important for our people to mine, and mine responsibly, whether as individuals, as cooperatives, but also generating income and creating jobs for themselves. That’s quite important, but it has all to be done responsibly.”