Responsible operations
Msesule Gold is a small, mechanised open-pit operation in the Lupa Gold Field, Mbeya Region. This page sets out how we employ and train our team, how we control the chemistry of gold recovery, and how we look after the ground we work, including ground that others dug before us.
Employment and community
30 employees on site
We recruit mainly in the Mbeya Region and in the villages near the site.
Gold has drawn diggers to the Lupa since the 1920s. We set up Huudi in 2024 to develop small-scale gold mining here, and since 2025 we have mechanised Msesule step by step, with excavators in the trench and a processing circuit on site.
A Tanzanian-led team runs the site day to day. Pascal Hubert, our co-founder and Operations Director, lives in Tanzania and works on site full time. The operator's expansion plan provides for around 50 people at steady state (September 2026).
Training on site, with the Mining Commission
We train our employees on site, notably with the regional office of the Mining Commission, Tanzania's mining regulator, established in 2017. The training covers four subjects: safety, explosives, the environment and first aid.
Pay and social cover
Every employee is paid at least the statutory minimum wage for Tanzania's mining sector. Our employees are registered with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and with national health insurance (NHIF), which covers their medical care.
Processing and chemicals
Mercury-free gold mining
We use no mercury at Msesule. Mercury amalgamation remains common in small-scale gold mining worldwide. According to the UN Environment Programme's Global Mercury Assessment 2018, the sector accounted for about 38% of mercury emissions to air from human activity in 2015. Tanzania ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2020.
Gravity separation, then vat leaching
We recover gold by gravity separation, then by cyanide leaching in vats. We commissioned the circuit in September 2026.
Our cyanide management plan
A cyanide management plan has applied since commissioning. It sets five controls:
- Controlled alkalinity.
- A water balance with no discharge.
- A sealed tailings pond.
- Cyanide destruction before deposition.
- Mercury screening of all third-party material.
Environment
Closing old pits, ours and others
Informal gold digging has opened pits here and there across our licence area. It leaves crevasses that put local people and their livestock at risk. Elsewhere in Tanzania, Mongabay reported in May 2026 that such pits fill with water whenever it rains and that their walls collapse.
We close and backfill the pits we no longer use. We do the same for abandoned artisanal pits on our licence area.
Restoring land and watercourses
We rehabilitate the land we have worked and the watercourses affected by artisanal digging.
Waste rock, site waste and trees
Non-toxic waste rock goes back into use as fill for earthworks. We sort and recycle site waste. Leach residues follow their own route: cyanide destruction, then the sealed tailings pond. We also plant trees.
Qualified investors can review the detail of this work, including our cyanide management plan, under NDA.