The Zimbabwe School of Mines (ZSM) says it is shifting from classroom-based training to on-site support for artisanal and small-scale miners as part of efforts to eradicate mercury use in gold mining.
Speaking during a PlanetGold Zimbabwe engagement Munashe Chineka from ZSM said the institution now wants to move beyond conferences and webinars to directly service miners where they work.
“We are saying we now need to move out of the classroom and go and service the community and miners from where they are. We now need to move off the conferences, off the webinars and go and talk to the miners directly where they will be doing their work,” he said.
He said discussions have focused on alternative processing methods that artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) can adopt to eliminate mercury use, including gravity concentration, improved grinding, understanding gold textures and improved leaching methods.
Chineka said ZSM is developing an experimental mine that will serve as a practical training and testing ground for researchers and innovators.
“As a School of Mines, as a training institute, we are developing an experimental mine,” he said. “There was a call from one of the participants yesterday imploring us to keep on researching, researching and researching.”
He said the experimental mine will provide a platform to test prototypes before they are rolled out to miners.
“The establishment of the experimental mine is going to provide the training ground for those that want to come up with their prototype researches. We go and we test them there well before we go to ASGM to say here is the method you can use in order to do away with the use of mercury,” he said.
Chineka said health must be prioritised in all training programmes, noting that discussions centred on the health effects of mercury exposure.
“We also need to put safety first in all our trainings, because all the discussions yesterday were centering on the health effects of mercury and therefore we need to put safety first. We preach about doing away with the use of mercury at the same time we are providing the alternative,” he said.
Since the programme to eradicate mercury use began, ZSM has trained more than 2,000 miners, with 655 miners trained between January and September 2026 alone.
“As a school, when the issue of trying to eradicate the use of mercury started, we have so far trained more than 2,000 miners since 2022. In 2026 alone, we have trained 655 miners from January to September 2026,” he said.
He said the training focuses on responsible mining and environmental stewardship, which directly addresses the need to eliminate mercury use.
“This training was inclusive, it was including the youth, it was including the women, and our goal for this training is to go for safer mining practices and improve recovery at the same time improve the livelihood,” he said.
He emphasised that training is not done in a vacuum but builds on existing knowledge held by miners.
“The practical training that we are fostering is built on existing knowledge which the ASGM held. We can’t go and start training from the vacuum. We build on the skills which this ASGM already have and we come up with applied principles which will be coming from the researchers that are going to be coming out of our experimental mine,” he said.
“And when we do so, we give the confidence to the ASGM to say, here are the alternatives. And these alternatives, they are safer, they actually build a better business, stewardship, which therefore you can adopt.”
In partnership with PlanetGold, the school has developed six additional training modules aimed specifically at the ASGM sector.
“To that end, in partnership with PlanetGold, the school has developed six more modules that are aimed for the ASGM,” Chineka said.
The initiative is part of broader efforts under the PlanetGold Zimbabwe project to formalise, professionalize and decarbonize small-scale gold mining while improving gold recovery and livelihoods.
*www.zimining.co.zw — Exclusively Mining*
