GEITA, TANZANIA—– Tanzania’s Geological Survey recently set aside 50 hectares of land in Geita Region, in North West Tanzania for small scale gold miners.
The miners should be pleased. This gives them an opportunity to seek out their fortune without being constantly harassed for acting illegally.
The move also strikes the right note of encouragement. Most small scale miners face a host of difficulties. They lack of capital, shortage of mining areas, as well as access to appropriate technology. Any government support is welcome.
The Geita Resident Mines Officer and Inspector of Mines and Explosives, Eng. Juma Sementa told journalists from Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania who were on a recent field trip, among the serious challenges these miners face is lack of capital intensive, technology know-how and unavailability of mining areas.
Eng. Sementa was also backed by the Chairperson of Tanzania Women Miners Association, Ms Eunice Negele, who highlighted the miners’ meagre budgets.
Ms Negele said there are many areas in the country which are controlled by large scale miners who do not develop them.
She said it is high time the government repossessed these areas and allocated the some of it to small scale miners.
According to Tanzania’s Medium Term Strategic Plan 2012-2016, although the government has taken efforts to provide extension services to small scale miners, this kind of mining is still underdeveloped due to the use of inappropriate technology.
In a bid to solve these challenges facing small scale miners Eng. Sementa said they have already allocated 673.5 hectares for them.
“The Geological Survey conducted a survey within the allocated 673.5 hectares for small scale miners. We have already earmarked between 40 and 50 hectares that has a potential for gold deposits,” he said.
According to Eng. Sementa, the remaining land would be used for other economic activities includes agriculture and pastoralist’s activities.
Eng. Sementa said they have already issued primary mining licences to 681 small scale miners in the area which has an average of 6,810 local people who are involved in the mining activities.
The Minister for Energy and Minerals Prof, Sospeter Muhongo recently held a meeting with artisanal and small scale miners in Dodoma to learn about the challenges they encounter while carrying out their activities.
The small mining operators highlighted some of the challenges such as lack of permanent mining areas and meagre budget which do not benefit majority of them.
They said that the government should address the challenges to make the sector contribute fairly to the country’s GDP.
Tanzania currently has proven gold reserves of around 45 million ounces.
At the current gold price, this means the country is sitting on a fortune of about $39 billion, over three times the country’s annual GDP of $11 billion, although extraction costs must of course be taken into account.
Muhongo said the government has started addressing some of these challenges.
The government also promised to create conducive environment for small scale miners so as to allow them working without any harassment from local government authorities.
The government has increased the budget from Tsh2.5 billion ($1.54 million) in 2011/12 to Tsh8.9 billion ($5.50 million) this year to support small scale miners.
Tanzania is the East African Community’s top mineral exporter, led by gold.
