MINING executives have urged the government to accelerate formalisation of artisanal and small-scale miners, saying the sector's future depends on bringing operators into the mainstream economy.
The calls were made at the ongoing Chamber of Mines Annual Conference 2026 being held in Victoria Falls.
Speaking during a gold mining session, which was sponsored by Mutapa Gold Resources(MGR) Ghana Chamber of Mines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenneth Ashigbey said African governments must stop treating small-scale mining as a criminal activity and instead embrace it as a tool for economic development.
"For countries like Ghana and Zimbabwe, small-scale miners are contributing significantly to national gold production.
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"Africa must move from criminalising poverty to formalising opportunity. Formalisation is an economic development, governance, social inclusion and national security strategy," said Ashigbey.
His remarks come as Zimbabwe's small-scale miners continue to dominate gold production, delivering more than 34 tonnes of gold in 2025, representing approximately 75% of total national output.
Large-scale mining companies contributed just over 10 tonnes during the same period.
Mutapa Gold Resources CEO Patrick Shayawabaya said the sustainability of the country's gold industry depended on increased exploration, improved governance and the integration of artisanal miners into mainstream mining structures.
"The future we seek will not be secured by current production alone. It will depend on how we explore for minerals, establish supportive governance systems and integrate artisanal and small-scale miners into legitimate, safe and competitive gold-mining structures and the broader gold economy," said Shayawabaya.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president Henrietta Rushwaya painted a grim picture of conditions facing small-scale miners, saying most operators remain trapped in illegality despite their outsized contribution to national production.
"There is actually a plethora of challenges facing the sector. Notably, that of financing, that of working space. Our people might be working in different areas, but 90% of them are illegally operating," Rushwaya said.
She said the federation had repeatedly appealed to government and the private sector to create partnerships that would help organise miners into formal groups capable of accessing financing, technical support and legal mining claims.
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"And as such, we have made numerous pleas to government, and even to the private sector, including the Chamber of Mines, to say, can we come up with synergies where small-scale miners can be organised in groups and work as a team," she said.
Earlier this year, Mutapa Gold Resources launched an artisanal and small-scale mining formalisation programme in Chegutu, aimed at training and integrating hundreds of miners into safer and more productive mining operations.
Industry players at the conference agreed that formalisation could help improve gold deliveries, curb smuggling, increase government revenues and reduce mining-related conflicts, while providing thousands of miners with legal access to mining ground, finance and markets.
