MUPANI mining company, a subsidiary of Australia Stock Exchange-listed resources giant Zimplats, has won a prestigious award at the Association of Mine Managers of Zimbabwe (AMMZ) Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) awards.
The award highlighted the mine’s dedication in enhancing safety, health and environment practises establishing it as the best mining company which has shown consistency in crucial areas.
Speaking during the SHE Awards presentation, AMMZ chairman and Chamber of Mines SHE committe member, Alfred Chinyere, said despite the challenges that some mines faced, some mines have shown impressive results in their SHE performances and commended Mupani for its consistency progress in the SHE area.
“So when we evaluated all the mines, looking at their performance of 2025 compared to 2024, most of the mines could not attain anything above 7% in terms of improvement,” he said.
“— But today’s main award will go to this mine, which is an award for excellence in safety technology innovation. So this mine has set a global benchmark by becoming the first room and pillar operation to deploy autonomous Senvig TH545I dump trucks underground.
“The innovation also progressed from a trial of four trucks. And according to the evaluation, the program has eradicated exposure related to incidents in an automated haulage zone — What we acknowledge is the amount of investment which has been put in by Mupani.”
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Chinyere said despite a downward safety measurement performance, which fell to 41% from 48%, the association would continue to put measures that can help these companies improve their SHE performance.
“We continue, as SHE Committee, to offer a service under the AMMZ, where we champion the SHE activities.
“The key issue which we have been handling is our participation in legal changes which are happening right now, especially the OSH [Occupational Safety and Health] Bill, we are also participating in that hopefully it will come to a stage where it will also go through.”
The modern mining sector is placing increasing importance on SHE and Environment and Social Governance practices as part of efforts to promote a sustainable mining that minimises environmental impact.
Chinyere also reported a 7% decrease in fatal incidents, compared to 48% in 2024 to 41% this year (2025), reflecting the effectiveness of SHE initiatives.
“Talking generally about safety performance, our mining industry continues to face challenges with regards to fall of ground.
“While we have realised an improvement in terms of performance regarding the fall of ground incidents, the other year, in 2024, we were sitting at around 48%, as in the contribution to our fatal accidents.
“This year, in 2025, we experienced a slight decrease, which is around 41%.”
Added Chinyere: “The improvement also came about because as part of our SHE initiatives, we have since included fall off ground as a measuring parameter.
“So we continue to hope that the initiatives which we are running at the moment will continue to make a significant impact with regards to fall off ground.”
Ayrshire Mine was recognised as the most improved mine during the awards.
“But we had one mine which managed to achieve that, and the mine is Ayrshire Mine,” he said.
Chinyere has, however, commended mining companies for their performance in trying to reduce fatal accidents in mining places.
“... so 13 mines managed to participate, so we had a 7 % decrease there. But overall, we had an improvement, and we really commend all the mines who participated in these competitions.
“I also would like to talk about the mine rescue activities. We actually also had quite a good season, but one of the issues which we have noted is that some of the mines are still struggling with regards to provision of mainly vehicles and we implore the mines which don't have the vehicles at the moment to also prioritise and provide vehicles.”