Zimbabwe’s state-owned gold mining company Mutapa Gold Resources plans to double its annual output to 220,000 ounces by 2029 after securing funding for an expansion project, according to production reports made available to reporters on Friday.
Mutapa, the country’s biggest gold producer, had output of 104,626 ounces in the financial year to March 31, according to the documents, a 10% decline from the year before mainly due to lower grades.
The company said it had secured $75 million from Zimbabwean banks, half the funding requirements for its Shamva Hill open pit project, which will raise the mine’s output to nearly 80,000 ounces annually from about 24,000 ounces currently.
Work on the Shamva project, about 100 km (62.14 miles) north-west of Harare, will begin in August, and Mutapa is negotiating with foreign lenders for the balance of the project’s capital requirements, it added.
The rest of the additional production will come from a capacity expansion at the company’s Jena mine, where work is expected to start in the final quarter of 2026, improved output at its Freda Rebecca mine, and moves to incorporate material from artisanal miners.
Mutapa, owned by Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth fund, is key to the country’s ambitions to raise gold output. The country is targeting 50 metric tons of production this year from last year’s record 46.7 tons.
Gold is Zimbabwe’s top foreign currency earner, with export sales reaching $1.19 billion in the first quarter of 2026, against $579 million during the same period last year.
Zimbabwe earned $4.61 billion from gold exports in 2025, nearly half of the country’s total exports of $9.7 billion.
(Reporting by Chris Takudzwa Muronzi; Editing by Jan Harvey)
