Prime
Makinikia and economic liberation: The untold story – 14
What you need to know:
- It all began on March 29, 2017, when the President declared a ban to export copper concentrates famously known as Makinikia and 277 metal containers each weighing 20 tons containing the makinikikia from the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines were impounded at the Dar es Salaam Port and a special Presidential Technical Committee to investigate the mineral contents within those 277 containers.
As I said last week that with a new governance style a series of tough decisions that directly came from the State House signified a crusade to stop a long overdue canard mineral resources loot by investors.
The President formed two investigative committees – the Presidential Technical Committee and the Presidential Economic Committee to investigate irregularities in the regulation and administration (production and export) of the copper concentrates; better known as makinikia from two large scale mines: the Bulyanhulu Gold Mine and the Buzwagi Gold Mine; at the time were both owned by ACACIA mining company; a subsidiary company of Barrick Inc. company of Canada but also to evaluate the economic benefits made so far in the private sector led mining industry.
Before we continue telling this mystic story it is right and just to tell the public what Makinikia really means.
Makinikia are copper concentrates borne out of gold-copper rich ores from the two mines (Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi); after gold is extracted from the ore, the remaining tailings still contain copper and some gold is not thrown into the tailing dam facility but dried and granulated into a concentrate for smelting.
The other gold mines like Geita Gold Mine and North Mara Mine do not have such a rich ore and after gold is extracted from the tailings are thrown into the tailing facility.
It all began on March 29, 2017, when the President declared a ban to export copper concentrates famously known as Makinikia and 277 metal containers each weighing 20 tons containing the makinikikia from the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines were impounded at the Dar es Salaam Port and a special Presidential Technical Committee to investigate the mineral contents within those 277 containers.
The committee was composed of a number of experts in various disciplines led by one professor who was a Tsar of the Geological Survey of Tanzania.
Samples of the concentrates were then collected from each container and analyzed at the Geological Survey of Tanzania laboratory to obtain the mineral contents in the concentrates.
The Committee completed its work and presented a Special Report to the President on the 24 May 2017.
The President hailed the members of the Committee and the report itself as very patriotic as the report dared to test the wrath of the imperialists when they (mining companies) reacted by opening up litigations in the International Court of Arbitration (ICID) in London against the claim of plundering minerals that was put forward by the report.
Based on the Report presented to the President and its contents found at the following Web address https://www.tanzaniainvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Report- Investigation-Committee-contents-mineral-sands-concentrates-export.pdf I honestly present a mineral economist’s view on these results 4
The report showed that the concentrates contained 1.4 kilograms of gold in each ton compared to the quantity reported by ACACIA and the Tanzania Mineral Audit Agency (TMAA) of 200grams per ton.
It was then extrapolated that the 277 containers contained 13.16 tons of gold valued at TZS 1.15 trillion compared to the 1.1 tons of gold valued at TZS 98 billion as was reported by the TMAA and ACACIA. In this regard a divergence TZS 1.05 Trillion value of Gold was unreported.
For the silver minerals it was reported that the makinikia contained 650 grams of silver per ton against 150 grams per ton as reported by TMAA and ACACIA.
It was then concluded that the 277 containers contained 1.8 tons of silver with a value of Sh2.25 billion compared to 0.831 tons valued at Sh1.0 billion as was reported by TMAA and ACACIA.
This indicates that Sh1.25 billion a value of silver was not reported.
The pinnacle Makinikia chronicles will continue next week by looking at the copper and other eight that the Committee termed them “strategic minerals” claimed to have found and that they were not being reported but illegally exported without paying the statutory royalties.
