Zimbabwe is on track to beat its 50 tonne gold delivery target for 2026, with deliveries to Fidelity Gold Refinery reaching 35.88 tonnes by the end of September. The quarterly path has accelerated through the year, from 9.31 tonnes in the first quarter to 12.09 tonnes in the second and 14.48 tonnes in the third, and September alone delivered 4.72 tonnes. Hitting the target requires an average of 4.71 tonnes a month in the fourth quarter, a modest step up from this year’s 3.99 tonne monthly average, and officials expect delayed rains to soften the usual rainy season dip.
Artisanal and small scale miners delivered 25.78 tonnes of the total, nearly 72 percent, which is the structural story behind the headline. Fidelity, the state owned sole buyer and refiner, has spent five years building buying centres and payment incentives, including full foreign exchange retention, to pull informal output into official channels. Deliveries have risen from 29 tonnes in 2021 to a record 46.7 tonnes in 2025, against a 40 tonne target, and even a conservative fourth quarter at four tonnes a month would produce about 47.8 tonnes, another record.
Mines minister Polite Kambamura credited fiscal and monetary reforms for the run, and described gold as a key enabler of growth. The caveat is price: at bullion above 4,100 dollars an ounce, the incentive to mine and to deliver formally is at its strongest in history, and the same data series would test the formalisation gains if prices fell. Neighbouring Malawi, where a smuggling crackdown is facing credibility questions this week, shows the alternative path for the region’s artisanal gold when official channels lose miners’ trust.