Zimbabwe: Local Miners Shun Zida's Mining Claims Matchmaking Platform Despite Investment Potential

The Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) has expressed concern that local miners are not taking advantage of its Mining Claims Matchmaking platform, despite its vast potential to unlock critical investment opportunities.

The platform was created to connect mining claim holders in Zimbabwe with both local and international investors. It is designed to facilitate partnerships for technical support, tributary agreements, joint ventures, debt funding, or even the outright sale of mining claims.

According to ZIDA, the service is open to all mining claim holders in Zimbabwe, whether individuals, companies, or syndicates, regardless of their scale of operation.

To use the platform, claim holders are required to upload their identification documents, claim registration certificate, valid inspection certificate, and a site map.

But speaking during a plenary discussion at the 2025 Environmental Social Governance Conference convened by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (ZELO) and Silveira House on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba in Bulawayo, the ZIDA Legal Manager, Chidochashe Ncube, said local miners were not tapping into the platform's potential.

"There seems to be a lack of trust by locals who suspect the risk of losing their claims. Locals want to go behind the scenes and the few who come forth only do after being shortchanged by the potential investors.

"The public must be aware that this platform has a number of benefits like assistance in identifying ethical investors, contract drafting and professional advice on business-related issues," she said.

Ncube said such platforms also enhance the strengthening of ESG standards since matched parties easily fall under the authorities' surveillance.

Quizzed by one David Bote on why ZIDA appears to be pro-foreign investors as opposed to locals in rendering assistance, Ncube dismissed the claims, arguing that locals are not willing to come forth and exhaust available opportunities.

"It is incorrect. The fact of the matter is that foreigners' first port of call is usually the ZIDA because they do not know anyone around. In contras,t locals often bypass the Agency, opting to engage their connections instead, only to look for us when this goes off hand, "added Ncube.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.