SHAMVA Gold Mine has deployed over US$1,5 million of its US$7 million capital expenditure budget for the year, with the bulk of spending planned for the first half of the financial year, general manager Gift Mapakame said.
“Our capital for the year is around US$7 million. We have deployed slightly above US$1,5 million to date,” he said.
“In terms of how we had planned it, the first two quarters of the financial year would have the highest deployment of capital expenditure as we are trying to ensure that we acquire the inputs that we require for staying in business.”
Mapakame said Shamva Gold Mine, a member of Kuvimba Mining House (KMH), is also focusing on initiatives to contain costs.
“It is also important to note that of the US$7 million there is US$1,8 million that has been ring-fenced for exploration, both for surface exploration and underground exploration,” the Shamva general manager said.
“And these programmes have actually now hit an advanced stage of starting.”
Shamva — one of Zimbabwe’s oldest gold mines — is producing 49 000 tonnes of ore per month from underground operations, a trajectory last achieved in 1910.
In the first quarter, running April to June 2025, the company produced 6 000 ounces of gold, slightly less than the comparable period last year.
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“Our production actually dropped slightly because last year we were at 6 200 ounces of gold and mainly this was attributable to some fluctuations and variations in the grade performance,” he said.
“But we are still forecasting a positive recovery into the year. We intend to end this financial period just above 24 000 ounces of gold production.
“So, all efforts in terms of your production inputs are really focused on ensuring that we recoup the deficit and then maintain a steady state production throughout the duration of the year.”
Mapakame highlighted the company’s plans to invest in solar energy, noting the investment will be approached through a cluster-based solution.
“So, there is value in terms of economies of scale when we look at a cluster-based solution. So those are the studies that we are currently doing with regards to alternative sources of power.”
He reported strong progress at the Shamva Hill open pit project, stating the team is “currently focused on re-optimising its configuration.”
“We are looking at alternatives of employing a phased approach to the project as opposed to a big bang approach,” he said.
“We are thinking that we could actually have more capital allocation efficiency deploying a phased approach and also we could be able to quite easily ring-fence the upfront capital required to develop the project.”
He added: “So it’s now actually at an advanced stage at which point we will have those two approaches to assess which one would be the most favourable one given the funding environment that we are in right now.”
KMH has categorised its mines under three clusters — gold, energy, and platinum group of minerals (PGMs).
The gold cluster consists of Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, Shamva Gold Mine, Jena Mines, Homestake, and Elvington.
Under energy cluster there is Sandawana Mines and Bindura Nickel Corporation.
The PGMs cluster only consists of Great Dyke Investments.
