Zimbabwe’s brickmaking sector has been thrust into a new regulatory era after the government formally declared clay a mineral, a move that pulls thousands of brickmakers and clay extractors into the ambit of mining law for the first time.
The change is contained in Statutory Instrument 169 of 2025, which amends the Mines and Minerals (Declaration of Minerals) framework to classify “clay, where it occurs in quantities sufficiently great to warrant extraction by mining or quarrying” as a mineral.
The 2025 declaration overturns earlier statutory instruments, most notably S.I. 12 of 1996, under which minerals were classified and clay was not included on the list.
For brickmakers, especially small- to medium-sized operators who have historically operated outside the mining title system, the declaration has immediate legal consequences: clay extraction at scale now potentially requires mining registration, compliance with mining regulations, and oversight by the Ministry of Mines.
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Brickmakers must consult mining authorities for individual specific clearance, as S.I. 169 of 2025 does not give any; there is no numerical or technical benchmark to:
- define tonnage limits,
- set volume thresholds,
- distinguish between artisanal, small-scale, and industrial extraction,
- provide objective criteria for what “sufficiently great” means,
- Refer to any regulations, schedules, or guidelines where such quantities are prescribed.
Legally and practically, this means classification is discretionary, not automatic, but seems to rest on the form of extraction rather than a set measurement of the resource quantity.
Brickmakers and clay users cannot determine compliance purely from the SI; thus, there is a grey zone, especially for small and medium operators.
Brickmakers who are deemed to be affected must immediately regularize operations under mining law, including registration, inspections, and reporting.
Prior to this S.I.169 of 2025, brickmakers typically operated under local authority permissions, environmental regulations, or informal arrangements, without the need for mining claims or mining titles.
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