• Zimbabwe’s artisanal miners now produce 77% of the country’s gold but pay only 1.5% royalty and no other taxes
• Large-scale miners producing 23% face 10% royalty plus full corporate tax, PAYE and levies an inverted and unsustainable fiscal regime
• A simple, uniform 5% royalty on all gold would add at least $86–150 million per year to the Treasury, more than doubling revenue from the artisanal sector without disrupting deliveries
• Global precedent and Zimbabwe’s own geology prove 5% is the maximum viable rate: higher charges drive smuggling; lower rates continue the giveaway of billions

Harare- Zimbabwe is experiencing one of the most remarkable gold production surges in its history, achieving a record 36.48 tonnes in 2024 after a dip to 30.1 tonnes in 2023, with 2025 now firmly on track to deliver between 44 and 47 tonnes and export earnings of at least $3.2 billion, possibly much higher. Gold export revenues have risen dramatically over recent years: $1.6 billion in 2021 from 29.6 tonnes, $2 billion in 2022 from 35.46 tonnes, $1.8 billion in 2023, and a record $2.5 billion in 2024. From 36.48 tonnes.

Gold prices have, for the first time ever, remained sustainably above $4,000 per ounce, pushing gold to account for more than 50% of total export receipts and nearly 60% of all foreign currency inflows into the country.

The undisputed driver of this boom is the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASSM) sector, which contributed 65% of total output in 2024 and has risen to 77% in the first nine-months of 2025, while large-scale miners (LSM) have fallen to only 23%. Yet the current fiscal regime is completely inverted and economically indefensible.

ASSM pay a stagnant 1–2% royalty (effectively 1.5% on average) and nothing else, no corporate tax, no PAYE, no environmental levies, no community development funds, no export levies. Large-scale miners, by contrast, paid 5% royalty until the end of 2024 and now face 10% from 2025 onward, on top of full corporate income tax at 24.72%, PAYE on thousands of employees, NSSA contributions, environmental rehabilitation provisions, community trusts, and numerous other statutory payments.

It makes no economic sense whatsoever to charge the untaxed, informal ASSM only 1.5–2% while hammering the fully compliant formal sector with an effective burden that can exceed 40% of revenue.

The entire mining sector recorded gross revenues of $4.948 billion in 2023 and $5.495 billion in 2024, yet contributed only $671 million and $747 million respectively to the national fiscus, an effective tax-and-royalty rate of just 14%. This embarrassingly low capture exists solely because the 65–77% of production coming from ASSM escapes with virtually no fiscal contribution.

Using a projected minimum of $3.2 billion gold export earnings for 2025 and the 77%/23% split recorded so far, the imbalance is laid bare. Under the current regime, ASSM will deliver $2.464 billion and pay only $37 million in royalties, while LSM will deliver $736 million and pay $73.6 million, meaning the sector producing 77% of the gold contributes less in royalties than the sector producing 23%.

If ASSM paid a fair and uniform 5% royalty, the same modest rate LSM paid until very recently, the government would collect $123.2 million from ASSM alone, pushing total royalties to at least $160 million and adding $86–120 million to the fiscus in a single year without increasing LSM’s burden further.

Historical data from 2021–2024 shows the same pattern of lost revenue. In 2021 ASSM delivered $960 million worth of gold and paid $14.4 million at 1.5%; at 5% they would have paid $48 million, an extra $33.6 million. In 2022 they delivered $1.4 billion and paid $21 million, at 5% this would have been $70 million, an extra $49 million.

In 2023 the figure was $1.134 billion against $17 million actual; at 5% it would have been $56.7 million, an extra $39.7 million. In 2024 ASSM delivered $1.625 billion and paid $24.4 million; at 5% the Treasury would have received $81.25 million, an extra $56.85 million.

Over these four years alone, a simple shift to 5% would have added $179.2 million to the national treasury, more than doubling the $76.8 million actually collected from ASSM and lifting total gold royalties from $216 million to nearly $395 million, an 83% increase.

A uniform 5% royalty on all gold is not punitive, it is the global standard and the only logical way to achieve parity. Brazil charges registered garimpeiros 1.5% with no blanket exemptions. India has no royalty exemptions at all and levies 5–15% on small mines. Ghana, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali, and the Philippines all collect 3–6% from artisanal sectors without killing production. None of these countries lack small-scale miners; they simply made the official channel more attractive than smuggling.

Collection in Zimbabwe would be straightforward and immediate: require every miner or agent delivering gold to Fidelity to present a tax clearance certificate; withhold the 5% royalty at source and pay the balance instantly in 100% USD. To ensure deliveries do not collapse into smuggling, the government must pair the royalty with genuine incentives: subsidised shared milling centres within 30 km of every gold belt, low-cost explosives and drilling support, fast-track registration of small individual claims (2–5 hectares), and deployment of the cadastral system with drone and satellite monitoring to geofence claims and automatically link production to registered owners.

Miners will happily accept 5% if they net 95% of the world price in cash USD with zero risk and crushing facilities nearby, exactly what happened in Ghana and Tanzania, where official deliveries soared and smuggling plummeted.

At the same time, LSM deserve relief: reducing their royalty from 10% to 7% would still leave them paying more per ounce than ASSM while recognising their vastly higher overall contribution through jobs, corporate tax, and beneficiation. Some reports confirm that the current system actually encourages even large mines to divert 10–15% of their output through ASSM channels to access 100% USD and the lower royalty, an absurdity that proves the incentives are upside-down.

The current regime is unsustainable for four clear reasons. First, it captures almost nothing from the 77% of production that comes from ASSM while over-taxing the 23% from LSM. Second, it fuels an estimated $1.2 billion annual leakage through smuggling and diversion. Third, it starves the fiscus of hundreds of millions at the very peak of the gold price cycle. Fourth, it risks killing the formal LSM sector, leaving Zimbabwe dependent on an untaxed, unregulated ASSM sector once prices correct.

Zimbabwe cannot ban or crush ASSM, the geology of shallow, alluvial, and narrow-vein deposits demands their low-cost methods. But it can and must tax them fairly. A modest, automatically collected 5% royalty on every gramme of gold, paid by the digger and the multinational alike, sweetened with real formalisation support and 100% USD payments, would add $80–$150 million per year to the treasury without costing a single ounce of production.

The mathematics is undeniable, the global precedents work, and the policy tools are ready. The country has a narrow window to correct decades of distortion and finally turn its greatest gold boom into broad-based national development instead of private windfalls.

Equity Axis News