Sandawana Mine Zimbabwe: Location, Emeralds and Lithium

Sandawana is a mining complex in Mberengwa District, Midlands Province, southern Zimbabwe, at roughly 20°55′S, 29°56′E. It became famous for small, intensely green emeralds after a 1956 discovery, and lithium has since become a major product there. This guide covers where the Sandawana mine is, who found it, who has owned it, why the rock holds both emerald and lithium, and what the Zimbabwe export rules mean for anyone looking at nearby ground.

Where is the Sandawana mine in Zimbabwe?

The mines sit south of the town of Mberengwa, according to the Wikipedia summary of the published literature. The geologist J.C. Zwaan puts them 65 km by gravel road from Mberengwa, and confirmed coordinates of roughly 20°55′S and 29°56′E by GPS and placed the site in the Low Veld at about 830 m above sea level, with summer highs near 41°C, in his 2006 monograph in Scripta Geologica.

The first emerald came from the Mweza hill range, about 5 km west-southwest of where the Mwenezi and Mutsime rivers meet. The claim block Zwaan describes runs for 21 km. It holds several named sites rather than one pit:

• Vulcan: the first claim, pegged after the 1956 find.
• Zeus: about 2.5 km northeast of Vulcan, and the centre of emerald mining from the early days.
• Orpheus: an exploration prospect 3 km northeast of Zeus.
• Aeres: an exploration prospect, with its Aeres-3 section 10 km southwest of Zeus.
• Eros, Juno and Ariadne: other emerald-bearing sites found by trenching and drilling.
• Machingwe: a separate 1984 discovery about 12 km northeast of the Sandawana area, also in the Mweza hills.

Sandawana is one of several mineral sites in the district. Mberengwa also hosts Buchwa, Vanguard and C Mine, and gold is mined at C Mine and on smaller claims. For the gold side of the same type of rock, see our guide to Zimbabwe gold mining areas and greenstone belts.

What does Sandawana mean?

Sandawana is both a place name and a trade name for the emeralds mined there. Zwaan, citing the resident geologist F.C. Böhmke, says the name comes from a mythical red-haired animal in local folklore. The animal was said to leave red flashes of rust on wet grass, and owning one of its hairs was said to bring lifelong good fortune.

Sandawana history: the prospectors who found the emeralds

The story starts with a demand for beryllium and lithium minerals in the mid-1950s, which drew prospectors into what was then Southern Rhodesia. Zwaan gives the following sequence.

Infographic

From first stone to lithium pit in 5 steps

1. 1Vulcan, 1956Contat and Oosthuizen find the first emerald.
2. 2Zeus, 1957Chivaro spots a crystal in a footpath.
3. 3RTZ, 1959The prospectors sell to a Rio Tinto subsidiary.
4. 4New owners, 1993Sandawana Mines (Pvt.) Ltd. takes over.
5. 5Lithium, 2023CNRG reports open-pit lithium mining under Kuvimba.

• 7 October 1956: Laurence Contat and Cornelius Oosthuizen, two former civil servants turned full-time prospectors, find the first emerald and name their claim Vulcan.
• 17 May 1957: after a rainstorm, a Vulcan worker named Chivaro sees a deep green crystal in a muddy footpath. His employers reward him. The spot becomes the Zeus mine.
• Late 1957: the partners, having checked the stones with gemmologists including Dr Edward Gübelin, send the first parcel of rough to the United States.
• February 1958: regulations for mining and marketing are in place, and formal production starts soon after. The first processing is simply washing wheelbarrow loads of soil.
• Late 1959: after washing only about 70 cubic metres of soil, Contat and Oosthuizen sell to a subsidiary of RTZ (Rio Tinto Zinc), owned 53% by RTZ and 47% by the Zimbabwean public.

The Zeus pit was so rich that it was nicknamed the Bank of England. Gübelin’s 1958 paper in The Journal of Gemmology was the first article on the stones. RTZ then kept such strict secrecy that the next paper came 24 years later, when Böhmke published in 1982.

The find also set off a wider search. Zwaan records later emerald discoveries in the Filabusi and Masvingo districts, including Twin Star, Chikwanda, Novello, Mayfield, Popoteke and Renderd.

Who owns Sandawana? A timeline of owners

Ownership has changed three times since the discovery.

After the May 1993 sale, the new owners invested in equipment, housing, underground mining and ore processing, and the company employed about 400 people at the mine, 60 of them security officers, in the period Zwaan describes. A 1997 Gems & Gemology study says consistent production followed the change of ownership. Wikipedia dates the closure of the emerald operation to about seven years after the sale, when emerald demand fell, and the Nordic Africa Institute described it in March 2025 as an abandoned gemstone mine before the lithium rush.

The Centre for Natural Resource Governance, a Zimbabwean civil-society group, reported in its 2023 article on the mine that Kuvimba took over in 2019 and had invested US$56 million. Anyone doing business on the asset should confirm the current title holder directly with the Ministry of Mines, because holdings and group structures in this sector change.

Sandawana emerald mining: how the Zeus mine worked

Zeus began as an open cut and stayed one until the pit reached 15 m. It then became an underground mine, with four vertical shafts over a 700 m strike. Strike means the horizontal length of the ore zone. The No. 3 shaft served as the main production shaft to 122 m, and a second shaft reached the 152 m level. Zwaan records more than 40 km of tunnels and shafts.

Chart

How deep the Zeus emerald mine went

metres below surface, as described by Zwaan

Miners followed the top and bottom contacts of the pegmatite and stoped out the emerald-bearing shoots. A pegmatite is a very coarse igneous rock that often concentrates rare elements, and stoping means cutting ore out from underground openings. Late in the emerald era, the old Rio Tinto dumps became an important source of good small stones.

Processing moved from hand-sorting on conveyor belts to dense media separation, which separates schist carrying emerald from waste pegmatite by density. A magnetic roller then pulled slightly magnetic schist away from the emeralds, and the final sorting was done by hand.

What makes a Sandawana emerald different

Sandawana stones are known for small size and strong colour. Zwaan reports that many polished stones weigh under 0.25 carat, that a substantial number weigh 0.25 to 0.80 carat, and that cut stones of 1.50 carats or more are rare. Rough crystals of 25 to 100 carats were produced fairly regularly in that period, and the largest crystal he saw weighed 1,021.5 carats, found at Orpheus in 1995.

The colour comes with chemistry. Published analyses give 0.61 to 1.33 weight percent chromium oxide, well above the 0.01 to 0.44% cited for emerald from Habachtal in Austria. The 1997 study also lists actinolite and cummingtonite as abundant inclusions, which helps laboratories separate these stones from those of other localities. The International Gem Society notes that small, highly included emeralds with deep colour are sometimes sold as “Sandawana” even when they come from elsewhere, so ask for proof of origin.

For buying and pricing, see our separate page on Sandawana emerald prices, and for how the district compares worldwide, see emerald mines in the world.

Sandawana geology: why emerald and lithium occur together

Sandawana sits in the Mweza Greenstone Belt, at the southern edge of the ancient Zimbabwe craton. A craton is an old, stable block of continental crust, and a greenstone belt is a band of altered volcanic and sedimentary rock inside it. Emerald needs two elements that rarely meet: beryllium, carried by evolved granitic melts, and chromium, found in ultramafic rock, which is rich in magnesium and iron.

Zwaan’s model explains how they met here:

1. Rare-element granitic pegmatites intruded the greenstones just before or during a main deformation event about 2.6 billion years ago.
2. A late sodium-rich solution carrying fluorine, phosphorus, lithium, beryllium and chromium was injected along shear zones.
3. That fluid altered the pegmatite to albite and the greenstone wall rock to phlogopite mica, and emerald grew at the contact.

The lithium in that fluid is the link between the two eras of this mine. The rare-element pegmatites here belong to the lithium-caesium-tantalum family, the same group targeted for battery-grade lithium elsewhere. Our guide to pegmatite deposits explains how those rocks are explored.

At about 2.6 billion years, Zwaan concludes these emeralds are by far the oldest of the commercially available stones. Zambian emeralds, for comparison, formed about 450 million years ago.

▶ How satellites are used to look for lithium pegmatites, with an example from Nigeria · 10:49

Sandawana lithium: from whitish stone to open pit

CNRG’s 2023 account, based on interviews in the Chegato and Chengechuru villages, says locals had long known the stone without knowing its name or value. It reports that a tantalite licence holder came across the whitish rock in 2018, that word spread and informal mining began, and that Sandawana took an interest in 2020 and then joined ventures with Kuvimba, a different sequence from the 2019 takeover date the same article gives.

CNRG, citing a Chronicle article of 28 July 2023, gives these figures:

• Open-pit lithium mining began in January 2023.
• 600,000 tonnes worth US$216 million had been mined by that date, which works out at about US$360 per tonne.
• Informal sellers were getting US$100 to US$120 per tonne.

These are reported figures from 2023, not a resource or reserve statement. Treat them as history, not as a guide to grade or value today. No figure on this page is a published mineral resource for Sandawana.

The rush also caused conflict. The Nordic Africa Institute’s 2025 policy note says artisanal miners occupied the abandoned site and sold ore to middlemen, then were evicted, and that the filmed evictions drew widespread condemnation. Anyone assessing the district should treat land access and community relations as a real part of the project, alongside geology.

▶ Can foreigners get a small scale mining licence in Africa? · 5:16

Lithium in Zimbabwe: how Sandawana fits the national picture

USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 estimates Zimbabwe’s 2025 mine output at 28,000 tonnes of contained lithium, up from 20,000 tonnes in 2024, and its reserves at 500,000 tonnes. Reuters calls Zimbabwe Africa’s top producer. Note the unit: contained lithium is much smaller than the tonnage of ore or concentrate.

Chart

Lithium mine output by country

tonnes of contained lithium, 2025 estimates, selected producers

The named large producers are Chinese-owned. Fastmarkets listed in March 2026 Sinomine’s Bikita, Huayou’s Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, Yahua’s Kamativi and Chengxin’s Sabi Star, and forecast 124,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent from the country in 2026, about 7% of world supply. For a wider comparison, see our page on lithium in Mali, Zimbabwe and Ghana.

Zimbabwe lithium export rules that affect Sandawana ground

Export policy matters as much as geology here, because it decides what a tonne of rock can be sold as. The main dated steps are these.

Chart

Output growth before the export suspension

tonnes of contained lithium, 2024 to 2025 estimate, selected countries

• 2022: Zimbabwe bans lithium ore exports, Reuters reported in June 2025.
• June 2025: the mines minister announces a concentrate export ban from January 2027.
• Late February 2026: all raw mineral and lithium concentrate exports are suspended, citing malpractice and leakages.
• April 2026: the ministry sets quotas and conditions, including published accounts and written timelines for lithium sulphate plants before 1 January 2027. A 10% export tax stays on concentrate until the ban.
• April 2026: Chengxin and Sinomine report receiving quotas, with Sinomine’s at 200,000 tons.

In 2025 Zimbabwe shipped 1.128 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate to China, about 15% of China’s imports (Reuters, April 2026). Spodumene is the main lithium ore mineral in hard rock. Prices also move quickly: Trading Economics showed a lithium carbonate contract at CNY 91,700 per tonne on 5 November 2026, down 26.61% over a month and up 14.05% over a year.

Estimate a lithium parcel from your own numbers

The calculator below turns ore tonnes and a grade into concentrate and gross value, after the export tax. Use your own assay and a current price. Grade here means the percentage of lithium oxide (Li2O) in the rock. Recovery is the share of that lithium the plant actually captures. Gross value is before mining, processing and transport costs.

What to check before dealing in ground near Sandawana

This section is for licence owners, consultants and investors. A famous name next door does not prove anything about a neighbouring block.

1. Title: get the licence record from the Ministry of Mines, and compare the boundary with the mapped historic claims. Our guide to mining cadastre portals shows what to look for.
2. Foreign participation: take local legal advice on who may hold the licence type.
3. Rock: look for mapped pegmatite and greenstone contacts. Not every pegmatite carries lithium, and emerald occurs only where chromium-bearing rock and the fluid met.
4. Assays: insist on independent assays from a certified laboratory, with chain of custody.
5. Route to market: check whether your product can be exported under the current rules, and who would process it.
6. People and land: find out who lives and works on the ground, including informal miners, before any commitment.
7. Environmental approval: confirm it with the national environmental agency.

Satellite imagery can help as a first screen, for example to map old workings and exposed rock before a field visit. Farmonaut offers satellite-based mineral detection for licence areas. Results are exploration targets that come ahead of a resource estimate, and they need field checks and drilling. You can also request a quote or contact the team.

Anyone prospecting should hold the correct licence, get the landowner’s permission, stay off other people’s claims, follow safety rules, and never use mercury.

▶ The seven environmental impacts of mining, explained in clay · 2:31

Frequently asked questions

What is Sandawana?

Sandawana is a mining complex and valley in Mberengwa District, southern Zimbabwe. The name is also used for the emeralds from the site.

Where is Sandawana in Zimbabwe?

It lies at roughly 20°55′S, 29°56′E, about 65 km by gravel road from Mberengwa town, in the Midlands Province at about 830 m elevation.

Who discovered the Sandawana emeralds?

Laurence Contat and Cornelius Oosthuizen found the first emerald on 7 October 1956. A worker named Chivaro found the crystal that led to the Zeus mine in May 1957.

Who owns the Sandawana mine?

CNRG reported in 2023 that Kuvimba Mining House, 65% state owned at that date, took over in 2019. Confirm the current holder with the Ministry of Mines.

Does Sandawana mine lithium?

Yes. CNRG reported that open-pit lithium mining began in January 2023, and that 600,000 tonnes had been mined by July that year.

Are Sandawana emeralds still mined?

The commercial emerald operation closed about seven years after the 1993 sale, as demand fell. Lithium is now the main interest at the site.

Why are Sandawana emeralds so green?

Published analyses show very high chromium, at 0.61 to 1.33 weight percent chromium oxide. Many stones are small, but the colour stays strong.

How old are Sandawana emeralds?

Zwaan dates their formation to about 2.6 billion years ago and concludes they are by far the oldest commercially available emeralds.

How deep is the Zeus mine?

Zwaan records a 15 m open pit, a main shaft to 122 m, and a further shaft serving the 152 m level, with more than 40 km of tunnels and shafts.

Can Zimbabwe lithium concentrate be exported?

Only under the government’s rules. Exports were suspended in February 2026, quotas followed in April, and a concentrate ban was set for January 2027 (Reuters). Check the latest position with the ministry.