Online Reporter
Zvamaida Murwira
Senior Reporter
CABINET has approved a downward review of licences, permits, levies and fees in the mining sub-sector as part of wide-ranging reforms to reduce the cost of doing business, increase competitiveness and enhance economic growth.
The full list of the reduced fees and levies will be gazetted soon.
The review of the fees is in compliance with the Cabinet decision of July 29, 2025, which approved the implementation of a raft of business reforms in 12 sectors of the economy.
The set of fees was announced by Acting Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Mangaliso Ndlovu at a post Cabinet media briefing in Harare yesterday.
“More specifically, Cabinet approved the streamlining of duplicated and overlapping regulatory licences and permits, removed unnecessary levies and fees and lowered unjustifiably high levies and fees for the mining sector as per the following highlights: duplicative and overlapping licences and permits are now streamlined under a single regulatory authority,” said Minister Ndlovu.
New regulatory fees such as Gold Jewellery permit and application for registration of Approved Processing Plants for lithium, the Minister said, had been introduced while registration fees to deal with Precious Stones had been reduced and will be payable every 5 years.
“The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development annual fees for the first, second and subsequent inspection fees for block of claims (Base Minerals, Precious Metals and Mining Lease) has been reduced, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development Trading on Mining Location fee has been scrapped, the diamond cutting and polishing licence fee has been reduced and the Rural District Councils Land Development Levies are now been standardised,” he said.
“Cabinet also considered policy and legislative issues affecting the mining sector including the ongoing review of the Mines and Minerals Act; the development of the Minerals Development Policy and the operationalisation of the Mining Cadastre System to ensure that mining licences are granted, tracked and managed in a legally binding and accurate manner.”
Minister Ndlovu said other issues include capacitation of the relevant regulatory bodies to strengthen oversight of the mining sector and the formalisation of small-scale mining operations.
Responding to questions from journalists Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube said the reduction of fees such as application fees in some minerals like lithium will unlock a lot of potential given that companies are investing millions of dollars in extraction.
He said they were more preoccupied with the end benefit, that of beneficiation and setting up of smelting plants by the investing firms.
“We introduced a fee of $100 as an application fee for registration of an approved processing plant for lithium.
“These things are costing $400 million. So frankly, $100 registration fee is not a lot of money. I think we agree with that, even though it’s a new introduction,” said Prof Ncube.
He said on mining fees there were different categories that they had to consider.
“Basically, we have the following categories of licences or fees arising from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development’s work in regulating the sector.
“The first category is application fees. The second category is registration fees. The third category is the annual inspection fees. The fourth category is export permit fees. And then the last category is some other miscellaneous fees and those that are charged by other institutions that are regulating the sector,” said Prof Ncube.
“So, for example, when it comes to application fees in the first category, you have got application fees, for example, for revocation, for future application, for an exclusive prospective order, EPO, application for mining lease. And then for registration fees, you have got that for an approved project. And then for special mining lease, annual inspection fees, inspection of the first inspection block of claims, for example.”
He said 80 percent of the fees remained unchanged because they felt they were within reasonable range.
“There’s no need to change that. So we only changed 20 percent of the fees,” he said.
Government has, since last year, been reviewing permits, levies, fees on various economic sectors as it seeks to improve economic competitiveness in line with President Mnangagwa’s mantra that “Zimbabwe is Open For Business.”
The policy has been widely received by investors, businessperson captains of industry and diplomats, among others, as a step in the right direction.
