Small-scale gold miners just crushed it with massive production gains across Zimbabwe. These artisanal diggers pumped out 8.79 tonnes during the second quarter compared to just 5.77 tonnes from the first three months. The country's total gold haul jumped to 11.6 tonnes between April and June, leaving the earlier quarter's 8.5 tonnes far behind. Large mining companies also boosted their numbers slightly from 2.72 tonnes to 2.81 tonnes. Zimbabwe has already collected over 20 tonnes of gold this year.
The small operators completely dominate the big mining corporations when it comes to actual output. Fidelity Gold Refinery processes all the legal gold sales and sees way more metal coming from these smaller players. Government programs have...