Tanzania Mining Commission approves 7,000 licences

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Mining Commission has approved 7,000 mining licences out of 8,000 new applicants, which is 87.5 per cent of the applications.

Speaking to The Citizen recently, the chairman of the mining commission, Prof Idris Kikula, disclosed that at least 7,000 approved mining licences were already dispatched to their respective zonal mining officers.

According to him, the approved mining licences include primary mining, prospecting, special mining and dealers licences.

“I call upon the applicants of mining licences to collect their licences from their respective zonal and regional mining officers. In case, they don’t find them, they should contact the commission as soon as possible,” said Prof Kikula.

According to him, over 70 per cent of the approved licences are owned by local artisanal miners.

In a move to show that the government has relaxed the process of approving all types of licences in the mining sector, the new commissioner for mining said the door was open for aggrieved applicants to file their applications again.

Prof Kikula, however, called on the aggrieved applicants to file their applications in adherence to the current regulations.

Under the new mining regulations described as Mining (Mineral rights) of January 2018, licence applicants of all categories are required to keep documents related to demarcation of their mining areas, approved licences, payment of related fees and development of their mining areas, and failure to do so will lead to a fine of not less than Sh12 million.

Last week, Prof Kikula told a press conference that under the new mining law, foreigners are ineligible for the small-scale mining licences. However, the chairman said the foreigners can benefit from the artisanal licences if they have special agreements with local mining companies for using their modern technologies.

The Executive Secretary to the commission, Prof Shukrani Manya, also called upon the licence owners to abide by the mining regulations that demand them to develop the acquired mining areas for the stated period because failure to do so will lead to cancellation of their licences.

Recently, Prof Manya, who is also the commissioner for minerals, told The Citizen that there was a positive response from both local and foreign investors considering the turn out.

Tanzania is blessed with a variety of mineral, which include minerals for construction like cement, gypsum, bauxite and tin.

Other minerals, which contribute significantly in the economy of the country are gold, diamond and Tanzanite, which is a rare gemstone found in Tanzania only.