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Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Fred Moyo yesterday said Government will soon move in to correct the current state of affairs that has seen most mining claims in the country being held for speculative purposes.
Only a tenth of the 10 000 issued are being utilised.
Deputy Minister Moyo was speaking in the National Assembly while responding to a question by Silobela representative Cde Manoki Mpofu on Government policy regarding idle mining claims.
“The country has up to 10 000 mining claims held by various owners and those in use are less than 1 000,” he said.
“We are carrying out an exercise province by province to establish how many claims are being used and seek explanations from those that are not and see whether or not we can distribute them to others through enforcement of the ‘use or lose it principle’.”
Deputy Minister Moyo said they intended to engage stakeholders in the mining sector, especially large scale companies, to encourage them to release some of their claims to small-scale miners.
He said most operations by small-scale miners were done on the surface and would not prejudice the value of the claims as the big miners tend to mine deeper.
“This process is under way and we hope that next year, more claims will be released to syndicates that will operate under the supervision of the ministry in a way that will not prejudice the big mines,” Deputy Minister Moyo said.
He said his ministry was working on de-criminalising the work by informal artisan gold miners, but urged them to sell their products through formal channels.
Small-scale miners have cried foul that most big mining corporations are holding onto claims they are not using, prejudicing the country of potential revenue while also denying thousands of people a source of livelihood.
Government has identified mining as one of the critical sectors that will drive the revival of the economy, with plans afoot to leverage the vast mineral resources to raise money.
Small-scale miners have also been identified as critical to the growth of the mining sector.
Online Reporter