Law on cards to block foreigners from small scale mining

Business Writer

Zimbabwe is expected to promulgate laws that will block foreigners from venturing into small-scale mining, according to Mines and Mining Development Minister, Winston Chitando.

The move, Chitando said, is part of a raft of measures Government is employing to empower indigenous entrepreneurs.

The Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF), the mother body of small-scale miners in the country, has been advocating for the Government to reserve claims of 50 hectares and below to locals.

Of late, the small-scale mining industry has seen an influx of foreigners particularly from China, among other countries venturing into the gold sub-sector.

At the recently held Mining Engineering and Transport (Mine Entra) exhibition in Bulawayo, the ZMF through its president, Henrietta Rushwaya, made a clarion call for small-scale mining to be reserved for indigenous Zimbabweans.

This was on account that the foreigners were scrambling for mining titles in the small-scale mining industry leaving the indigenous Zimbabweans with limited opportunities.

In response, Chitando said the upcoming Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill would address the concerns raised by players in the small-scale mining sector.

“In the amendment of the Mines and Minerals Act, small-scale miners will now be officially recognised, and the sector will be protected and reserved for local miners. Currently, there is no legal framework reserving small-scale mining for the local mining sector,” he said.

Chitando in February last year tabled a new Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill in the National Assembly after President Mnangagwa declined to sign into law the one that was previously passed by Parliament in 2018.

This was after the President expressed his reservations over some sections of the Bill which he said violated the Constitution.

For example, a clause that violet property rights by conferring rights of a miner ahead of a farmer where a mineral would have been found on agricultural land.

Some of the issues provided in the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill include; recognition of artisanal and small-scale miners, resolution of the farmer-miner disputes, environmental, health and safety issues; and transparency in the licencing regime of mining titles.

According to the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA), the mining sector is one of the country’s cornerstones currently contributing 70 percent to Foreign Direct Investment, 80 percent to exports — 19 percent to Government revenues, 3 percent to direct formal employment and 13,5 percent to national income.

The mining industry is endowed with vast mineral deposits that include gold; platinum; diamond; lithium; chrome; coal and semi-precious stones such as amethyst, agate, antimony, and amazonite.

Players in the small-scale mining industry are predominantly found in gold, chrome and semi-precious stones along the Great Dyke belt and elsewhere in the country.