Stamico reveals plan to empower artisanal miners

At the forefront of these transformative efforts is the establishment of a groundbreaking mineral bank, which promises to streamline access to essential capital for miners, among other vital objectives.

According to Stamico director General Venance Mwasse, access to capital has been a persistent issue in the sector, and the mineral bank will bridge the gap.

Dr Mwasse was speaking during a press briefing in Dar es Salaam yesterday as part of a series of such events organised in line with directives by Treasury Registrar Nehemiah Mchechu, who wants institutions under his docket to go public and explain what they have been doing and what they intend to do to bring about the much-needed efficiency in their operations.

“In providing financial solutions, we have already signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with several commercial banks in the country to assist in the provisions of credits to the small scale miners,” he said.

He said apart from boosting financing for small scale miners, the bank being mulled will also be a catalyst for change in the way existing lenders deal with players in the mining sector.

Tabling the 2023/24 budget in Parliament in April,this year the Minerals Minister Dotto Biteko said as of March 2023 five banks NMB Bank, NBC, Azania, CRDB, and KCB have lent a total of Sh145 billion to small-scale miners, compared to Sh36 billion that had been lent as of March 2022.

Speaking yesterday Dr Mwasse highlighted that there are other strategies are underway to address challenges related to technology adoption and secure markets.

“These strategies aim to bring modern technology to small-scale mining operations, enhancing productivity, safety, and efficiency,” he said.

“We have purchased five specialised ore crushing machines for small-scale miners, and our goal is to have at least 15 machines come March 2024,” he insisted adding that the state corporation also intend to ensure that miners have reliable markets for their products.

On that note he said apart from connecting artisanal miners to buyers, creating a reliable market after the establishment of the Tanzania’s first gold refinery facility the Mwanza Precious Minerals Limited.

Mwanza Precious Minerals Limited is jointly owned by Stamico (25 per cent) and two foreign companies, Rozzela General LLC of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ACME Consultant Engineers PTE Limited from Singapore (RGTACE), which jointly own 75 per cent.

“This facility helps for value addition for our gold and provide a market for the local artisanal and small scale miners, where we pay them in dollars as a result plays a role in adding more dollars in circulation considering the current shortage,” said Stamico’s boss.

The refinery started trial operations on April 21, 2021. It can refine 480 kilogrammes per day at the 999.9 purity and becomes one of the biggest gold plants in Africa.

Dr Mwasse said Stamico has in the past three years made an incredible revenue rise by over 4,000 percent, from only Sh1.3 billion during the year 2018/19 to Sh61.1 billion currently.

“Last year we managed to give to the government Sh2.2 billion in dividend, and this year that value will increase to near Sh2.5 billion,” said Dr Mwasse.

He attributed the performance to a decision to go commercial, strengthening discipline in finance management as well as changing the mindset among both the management and staff of the corporation.

The factors, Dr Mwasse said, were driven by Stamico’s 'Turnaround Strategy' which was prepared in 2019 in an effort to revive and reform the corporation and do away with its past poor show.

He said upon deciding to run Stamico as a commercial entity, the management started looking for business opportunities and investors for joint ventures.

Having managed to start paying dividends, Stamico was now looking up to getting rid of depending on the government for some of its operational requirements.“Currently we only depend on the government in payment of salaries, but from the next financial year, we want to do everything on our own and still pay dividends," he said.
Available records show that in 2018/19 the Stamico was depending on the government by 89 percent, but this has since gone down to only nine per cent.