Co-operatives are viewed as remedy to social economic injustices, a panacea to poverty at household level and as dependable social safety nets for the mass populations of developing countries. Despite their usefulness and value, their existence is short-lived as a result of failures to endorse institutional sustainability. In an effort to understand why co-operative entities fail, the study focused on the sustainability of small-scale mining cooperatives in Zimbabwe basing on Danangwe District Youth in Mining Cooperative, Gadzema, Chegutu as a case study. The research adopted a descriptive research study design using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Three categories were generated under governance, compliance and benefit sharing as key pillars of institutional sustainability. The study concludes that small scale mining co-operatives are not sustainable but can be deemed circumstantially sustainable as they continue to exist despite the infractions observed relating to institutional sustainability. Over 70% of participants who were cooperative beneficiaries were not satisfied benefit sharing arrangements and governance of the institution. We recommend that implementation of the 8 principles of good governance to avoid the risk of the co-operative collapsing, establishment of compliance frameworks to observe all mining laws and policies and that cooperatives leadership acquires technical knowledge to manage.