In March 2025, Mwamba was recognized by the World Gold Council (WGC) as one of only two global success stories in the use of centralized, mercury-free gold processing plants. The recognition was published in the Council’s landmark report, The Role of Gold Processing Plants in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining, exploring the potential role of gold processing plants in driving the sustainable formalisation, legitimisation, and professionalisation of artisanal and small-scale gold mining value chains.
In his foreword to the report, David Tait, CEO of the World Gold Council, emphasized:
“What this report does do, is to help us learn from success stories such as Dynacor in Peru and Mwamba Mining in Tanzania.”
The ASGM Opportunity
Since the 1990s, the ASGM sector has expanded from 4% to 20% of global gold production, now valued at over $65 billion annually. Around 20 million people worldwide depend on this sector for their livelihoods. Yet, challenges of informality, mercury dependence, and limited access to markets have prevented miners from realizing its full potential.
The WGC report highlights how centralized, mercury-free processing plants can:
- Improve gold recovery rates (from ~40% to 90%), raising miners’ incomes.
- Provide aggregation points that support formalisation and supply chain transparency.
- Create domestic “pinch points” for responsible oversight and traceability.
Mwamba’s Approach
Mwamba’s mine co-development and gold processing model in Tanzania is helping artisanal miners transition from mercury-dependent practices to safe, scalable, and responsible production. By processing gold through a mercury-free Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) facility in Buziba, Mwamba ensures that artisanal gold reaches legitimate markets, enabling downstream buyers to source responsibly.
What makes Mwamba’s model unique is our mineral sourcing approach: Mwamba sources ore through partnerships with mine site license holders or through purchases from verified ASGM miners in our community. We are also in the process to strengthening our sourcing procedures and documentation to achieve compliance not only domestically, but also internationally.
A key improvement will be the digitisation of currently analog system through Wazi, Mwamba’s due diligence, risk management and traceability platform, as we are working to integrate ASM gold into global value chains.
Looking Ahead
At Mwamba, we remain committed to building on this recognition to partner and work with miners who want to professionalize their operations, or process their gold using safer alternatives.
We thank the World Gold Council for spotlighting our work, and reaffirm our commitment to scalable, mercury-free solutions that unlock the potential of ASGM for sustainable development.
Click here to read the full report.
