Sixty-four artisanal and small-scale miners died in Zimbabwe during the first quarter of 2026, a 6 percent increase from the same period last year, with ground collapses accounting for more than half of all fatalities, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Ryan Chigoche
The quarterly death toll, disclosed by Mines Minister Polite Kambamura at a workshop for ministry inspectors, lays bare a widening gap between mining’s economic importance and persistent safety failures.
Of the 64 lives lost, ground collapses claimed 54 percent, accounting for 35 miners. Improper use of explosives and gassing caused 25 per cent of the deaths, while falls into abandoned and unprotected shafts accounted for 15 per cent. Electrocution and equipment-related incidents made up the remaining 6 per cent.
Kambamura told government inspectors that the sector’s record mineral revenue in 2025, driven by gold, lithium, and other commodities, must not overshadow the loss of life.
“The figures that must command our attention this morning are not the figures of production. They are the figures of loss,” he said.
The Minister dismissed any framing of the deaths as unavoidable misfortune.
“These deaths are, in the overwhelming majority, preventable. They are not acts of God. They are the predictable consequence of unsafe practice, and where there is unsafe practice, there must be a vigilant inspector.”
He outlined a two-pronged safety response: first, a training programme that has already reached over 500 artisanal miners with instruction in basic safety and environmental management.
“Where you find ignorance, teach,” he said.
Second, he ordered inspectors to deploy the full force of the law against criminal operations, including riverbed mining, undermining of public infrastructure, and working without title, using prohibition orders without hesitation.
With artisanal activity accelerating alongside formal investment, pressure on the inspectorate is intensifying. Kambamura closed with a direct challenge: treat the 64 dead not as a statistic, but as evidence of a system requiring urgent repair.
“Behind each of those numbers is a family broken, a community grieving, and a question we are duty-bound to answer: could it have been prevented?”
