ARTISANAL mining has become one of southern Africa’s most economically consequential yet structurally neglected sectors.
In Zimbabwe, gold-rich districts such as Kadoma, Shurugwi and Mazowe host thousands of artisanal miners whose livelihoods sustain rural economies, with official acknowledgement that the combined output of artisanal and small-scale producers has, at times, surpassed that of large mining companies.
In South Africa, zama-zama miners operate in abandoned or marginal gold and platinum workings, supplying mineral value chains while remaining largely outside formal recognition.
Despite different legal and institutional settings, both countries face the same dilemma: artisanal mining is economically embedded, socially entrenched and administratively unmanaged.
The weakness in current governance is not the absence of State authority, but the way that authority is exercised.
In Zimbabwe, artisanal mining exists without a distinct legal category, yet State interaction is continuous.
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Ministry of Mines officials, operating from provincial offices, routinely enter mining districts to conduct inspections, respond to safety incidents and assess compliance risks.
What is missing is not oversight, but a structured mechanism that converts this regular State presence into a pathway for recognition, data generation and gradual formalisation.
Inspections observe production, but the information gathered dissipates without shaping policy or enabling development.
South Africa’s challenge is conceptually aligned but structurally different.
The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act governs mining activity comprehensively, yet it does not recognise artisanal mining as a distinct operational form.
Compliance requirements are therefore calibrated for capitalised entities, leaving poor miners unable to transition to legality even when operating in abandoned or marginalised mine spaces.
In both countries, artisanal miners are visible to the State, but invisible to the system.
The policy mistake has been to treat formalisation as a legal event rather than a production process.
An alternative approach lies in what can be described as a Production-Anchored Formalisation Model, which begins by governing what miners already do, rather than prescribing what they must become.
The model’s central innovation is sequencing: production first, regulation later.
Under this approach, formalisation begins with recognised production zones rather than permits.
In Zimbabwe, provincial mining offices designate artisanal production areas based on known activity, inspection histories and geological viability.
Officials already entering districts for inspections would, during these visits, verify location, mineral type and extraction methods, recording this information in a provincial artisanal production register.
This does not legalise mining outright, but it acknowledges activity spatially and economically, creating visibility without criminalisation.
In South Africa, the same logic applies through municipal coordination with the Department of Mineral Resources, focusing on abandoned or ownerless mine sites.
Instead of attempting to remove miners who return repeatedly, authorities would stabilise these sites as controlled artisanal production zones, prioritising safety and spatial accountability before licensing.
The second operational pillar is collective production governance.
Artisanal miners are organised into locally recognised production groups tied to specific sites.
These are not co-operatives in the legal sense, but production units responsible for basic site discipline, safety coordination and production reporting.
The State does not regulate individuals at this stage; it governs production groups.
This reflects how artisanal mining already functions socially, while providing a manageable interface for oversight.
Market integration then becomes a governance tool rather than a reward.
In Zimbabwe, where gold buyers already absorb artisanal output, the point of sale becomes the point of verification.
Production recorded against registered groups is reconciled with sales data, improving transparency without disrupting existing market behaviour.
In South Africa, verified production from designated sites enables structured offtake arrangements, reducing illicit trade while creating traceable mineral flows.
Only once production, location and market channels are stabilised does the model introduce graduated regulation.
Environmental management, occupational safety and rehabilitation obligations are applied incrementally, triggered by production thresholds rather than imposed up-front.
Groups that demonstrate consistency, site stability and adherence to basic rules qualify for deeper support, including equipment access, technical assistance and eventual licensing pathways where appropriate.
Regulation becomes progressive, not prohibitive.
What distinguishes this model from past approaches is its practicality.
It does not require new district mining offices, wholesale legal reform or heavy fiscal investment.
It repurposes existing inspection circuits, market structures and administrative authority, aligning them into a coherent governance sequence.
For governments, this reduces enforcement costs and improves mineral data.
For communities, it replaces uncertainty with structured inclusion.
Artisanal mining will not disappear through enforcement, nor will it formalise through legislation alone.
It must be governed as a production system before it can be regulated as a sector.
By anchoring formalisation in production, space and collective accountability, Zimbabwe and South Africa have an opportunity to transform artisanal mining from a persistent governance challenge to a managed contributor to rural development, mineral value creation and State legitimacy.
The choice is no longer whether artisanal mining should be formalised, but whether governments are willing to formalise it on its own terms.