Mutapa Gold Moves to Curb Rogue Operations and Formalise Artisanal Miners at “Kitsiyatota”

State-owned Mutapa Gold Resources has stepped in to take control of the Phoenix Prince area popularly known as “Kitsiyatota” , an extension of the Freda Rebecca mine lease in Bindura to bring unauthorized artisanal miners under formal contracts and stop years of revenue loss.

Speaking at a stakeholder meeting at Freda Rebecca ,Mutapa Gold Resources General Manager responsible for contract mining Tirivashe Vera said the company is reclaiming the land because people have been mining without permission for over four years.

“Phoenix Prince in particular was being operated by some operators who were not authorised by Freda Rebecca for some period that is extending more than four years,” Vera said.

“As we have taken over the footprint of the Phoenix Prince area, we intend to formalise what the artisanal miners or the operators who were working in there, what they were doing, because we were not getting any value from it,” he added.

According to Vera, the company is allowing activities to continue under strict safety and sustainability rules.

“As we have taken over, we have allowed some of the activities to continue, but our plan is to make sure that it continues in a safe and sustainable manner, which is also cost effective,” he emphasised.

Vera added that their goal is a balanced approach where local miners keep their livelihoods while the state earns its rightful share.

“The second thing that we also expect is that people continue to have their economic benefit. At the same time, we’ll start to have something towards ourselves, which wasn’t happening in the past,” he added.

He noted that mining conditions vary across shafts and the area was never fully explored, though historical data shows viable gold grades.

This formalisation drive is part of a broader national strategy by state-backed entities to integrate small-scale mining into the formal economy and plug mineral leakages across Zimbabwe.

Under the new framework, miners must register for identification, enforce strict access controls, and limit outsiders to secure the 160-hectare site.

To ensure safety, the company is replacing short-term arrangements with structured contracts requiring formal mining plans, depth limits, and geospatial mapping.

Technical assessments, including geotechnical evaluations and void scanning, will be deployed to identify hazardous zones, with unsafe shafts slated for closure and alternative spaces offered when necessary.

While historical operations yielded around 1,000 tonnes of ore daily, initial production is projected at 300 to 400 tonnes per day translating to roughly 9,000 tonnes monthly.

Mutapa expects to secure a 30% cut of the recovered gold, translating to an estimated monthly yield of about 1.8 kilograms based on standard recovery rates and grade estimates.