Whaleside Shaft Sinkers is a specialist underground mining contractor based in KweKwe, in the heart of Zimbabwe's Midlands goldfields. We sink and equip shafts, develop the tunnels and raises that open up an orebody, ventilate the workings, mine the ore, install the ground support that keeps it safe, and drill the core that proves it up.

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The business grew out of Whaleside Investments (Private) Limited, founded in 1998. In 1999 the group won its first mining contract as an underground chrome-mining contractor to the Zimbabwe Mining & Smelting Company (ZIMASCO), a relationship that formed its core business for the next 18 years. In 2010 it took on its first shaft-sinking and lateral-development contract at Shamva Gold Mine. In 2011 Whaleside Shaft Sinkers (Private) Limited was incorporated to house that business. Shaft sinking, mine development, ground support and shaft equipping are now its core activities.

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Our own engineering team installs hoists, erects headgear and sheave wheels, fabricates Galloway stages and crossheads and builds collar-set civils, so a client deals with one contractor from collar to shaft bottom. A dedicated diamond-drilling division, formed in 2019, adds underground and surface exploration and evaluation drilling.

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Whaleside is 100% Zimbabwean-owned and is managed by its two founding directors. Today we serve clients across Zimbabwe, in Uganda (including GRL (Greenstone Mine)) and in Rwanda, and provide shaft consultation in Tanzania for Hacienda Mining. Three in-house registered gold buyers also help our small-to-medium-scale mining clients sell their gold through the formal, compliant channel.

OUR CLIENTS

Caledonia – Blanket Mine · Mimosa Platinum · Zimplats · ZIMASCO · ZCDC · Freda Rebecca · Jena Mines (Mutapa Gold) · Chegutu Gold Mine · Venice Mine Complex · Pickstone Mine · Ayrshire Mine (Pan African Mining) · Turk Mine · Sabi Gold Mine · Unki Platinum · GRL (Greenstone Mine), Uganda · New Bugarama Mine, Rwanda ·

Hacienda Mining, Tanzania