By Rudairo Mapuranga
Data from Fidelity Gold Refinery shows that total deliveries declined from 5,119.20kg in August, although September’s figure was 86% higher than the 2,535.21kg recorded in the same month last year.
Large-scale miners delivered 1,317.14kg during the month, up 15.5% from August and 29.5% year-on-year. Small-scale miners, however, delivered 3,398.32kg, representing a 14.6% monthly decline and a 3.4% decrease compared with September 2025.
The figures highlight contrasting monthly performances across the two mining categories, with small-scale miners continuing to account for the larger share of national gold deliveries.
Small-Scale Miners Drive Quarterly Recovery
Despite the September decline, Zimbabwe’s gold deliveries recorded strong growth in the third quarter of 2026, supported by an increase in small-scale deliveries.
Total deliveries reached 14,483.97kg in Q3, up 19.8% from 12,085.67kg in the second quarter. Compared with the 13,330.97kg delivered in Q3 2025, the latest quarterly total represented an 8.7% increase.
Small-scale miners delivered 10,837.53kg during the quarter, a 28.5% increase from the 8,431.69kg recorded in Q2. Deliveries were also 4.8% higher than the 10,345.95kg recorded in the corresponding quarter last year.
Large-scale miners delivered 3,646.45kg in Q3, marginally below the 3,653.99kg recorded in Q2, a decline of 0.2%. However, deliveries increased by 22.2% from the 2,985.02kg recorded in Q3 2025.
The quarterly figures show that the increase in total deliveries was driven overwhelmingly by the small-scale sector, whose deliveries rose by approximately 2.41 tonnes between Q2 and Q3. Large-scale deliveries remained broadly unchanged over the same period.
Large-Scale Miners Gain Share in September
Small-scale miners accounted for approximately 72.1% of September’s total gold deliveries, contributing 3.40 tonnes against 1.32 tonnes from large-scale producers.
Although small-scale miners remained the dominant contributors, their deliveries declined by approximately 580.12kg from August. The increase of approximately 176.39kg from large-scale miners was insufficient to offset that reduction, resulting in the overall monthly decline.
The September figures therefore point to a divergence between the two categories: large-scale deliveries increased while small-scale deliveries fell.
The available delivery data, however, does not establish the operational factors behind these movements.
Gold Deliveries and the 2026 Target
Zimbabwe has set a national gold production target of 50 tonnes for 2026. Assessing progress towards that target requires cumulative deliveries for the first nine months of the year and the volume expected during the final quarter.
Q3 deliveries averaged approximately 4.83 tonnes per month. Maintaining that rate over a full year would imply annual deliveries of about 57.94 tonnes, although this is an illustrative annualised rate rather than a forecast.
Actual performance will depend on deliveries in the remaining months of the year.
Zimbabwe’s gold sector remains an important source of export earnings, while Fidelity Gold Refinery’s monthly delivery figures provide an indication of the volumes entering the country’s formal gold purchasing and refining system.
The September results show that, despite a month-on-month decline, deliveries remained substantially above the level recorded a year earlier, while third-quarter deliveries increased both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.
