Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Active
Commodities	Gold
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The Arcturus Mine is one of Zimbabwe's oldest gold mining operations, having produced significant quantities of gold over the years. Arcturus mine comprises four underground mining operations which are Venus, Gladstone, Ceylon and Viceroy. Arcturus mine produced 788 oz in the first three months of 2016 and was subsequently placed under care and maintenance. In 2017, businessman Tawanda Nyambirai acquired the Arcturus Mine, and TN Gold, the associated private company, began efforts to revive and modernize operations. In 2018, mining operations had resumed, starting to mine oxidized ores through open-pit methods. In 2022, there were reports suggesting that TN Gold had begun exploring ways to boost production, including investing in new processing technology and improving the mine’s infrastructure. The most recent full year production data were publicly available for 2015 (as of January 2025).

Deposit type

• Hydrothermal
• Metamorphic hosted
• Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

Arcturus is situated (in the Enterprise belt) in the southern limb of the Harare Greenstone Belt. Orebodies generally comprise individual lenses which range from 0.2 m to 5.0 m in width and dip from 55° to 70°.

The Arcturus gold mine, located within the Shamvaian Group, is hosted in the Iron Mask Formation, which comprises a succession of metamorphosed felsic volcanics and associated metasediments including prominent bands of sulphide-facies iron formation, phyllites, meta-arenites, and quartzose schists (Oberthur et al., 2000). The mineralized shear zones in the Arcturus mine are characterized by silicification, biotite, and K-feldspar alteration. Gold mineralization is associated with pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, and also occurs as free gold, which contributed up to 10% of production.

There are 6 major reefs at Arcturus: Venus, Arcturus, West, Slate, Saturn, Planet.
Venus.
- Ore bodies are irregularly – shaped, discontinuous and lenticular.
- Reefs comprise well banded to laminated siliceous lithologies that consist of millimetre to centimetre units of pink-brown, cherty layers of k-feldspar-quartz-biotite-arsenopyrite which alternate with amphibole – diopside – epidote – plagioclase units containing pyrrhotite and pyrite.
- Pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite are the dominant sulphides.
- Free gold is rare.
- The reefs are arranged in an en echelon array in the alteration zone.
- The ore bodies trend south-easterly and dip at 55 - 70 degrees to the north-east.
- The payshoots show variable pitch towards the west.
- Ore body widths vary from less than a metre to 30 metres.

Venus – Dolerite Dyke.
* The dolerite dyke (25 – 40m thick) dipping 60 degrees SW exists around 2 – 3 level.
* Ore bodies above the dyke were mined from surface.
* The intrusion of the dyke resulted in a reverse movement which subsequently resulted in a vertical displacement of 80 – 90m.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Feb 8, 2025
.......................	.......................		Feb 8, 2025