Zimbabwe scraps gold royalty hike, sets higher threshold for windfall tax

Zimbabwe has reversed plans to double its gold royalty rate to 10%, a new 2026 budget bill showed on Wednesday, following protests by miners and industry groups.

A royalty rate of 5% would continue to apply for gold prices between $1,200 and $5,000 per ounce, according to the revised budget bill, which was approved by Zimbabwe’s lower parliament chamber in the early hours of Wednesday following lengthy debate.

In his budget speech last month, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube had proposed doubling the gold royalty rate to 10% for gold sold above $2,501 an ounce.

During the late-night budget debate, however, he told lawmakers that a 10% royalty rate would now only apply if the bullion price topped $5,000 an ounce.

Small-scale miners would continue to pay lower royalty rates of up to 2%, he added.

Large-scale miners such as Caledonia Mining Plc have warned that the proposed royalty hike would impact profitability at its 80,000 ounce-per-year Blanket mine in southern Zimbabwe.

Caledonia said the royalty increase and other changes to Zimbabwe’s fiscal regime would also undermine plans to develop its $500 million Bilboes project, which is set to be Zimbabwe’s biggest gold mine.

The southern African nation produced 42 metric tons of gold in the 11 months to November 2025, a new peak, outpacing the previous record of 37 metric tons in 2024.

Industry groups had warned that the government’s royalty hike would hurt efforts to attract investment and reposition Zimbabwe among Africa’s top gold producers.

Gold forecast to glitter again next year

Gold has made its biggest jump since the 1979 oil crisis in 2025 — with prices doubling in the last two years — a performance which might previously have meant forecasts of a big correction.

Yet a growing investor pool and factors ranging from U.S. policy to war in Ukraine mean analysts at JP Morgan, Bank of America and consultancy Metals Focus now see bullion hitting $5,000 per troy ounce in 2026.