Tanzania cancels 174 mining licenses

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Monday, April 07, 2014 

BY KENAN KALAGHO, EAST AFRICAN BUSINESS WEEK, KAMPALA, UGANDA

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Tanzania government has cancelled a total of 174 licenses issued to small, medium and large scale miners in the country citing failure of the said companies to abide by the country’s Mining Act of 2010.
According to the information that was availed to East African Business Week last week, the Commissioner of Minerals at the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Engineer Mr. Paul Masanja said companies licensed to undertake mineral exploration and extraction in the country have been evading paying fees, taxes as well as royalty to the government on time.
Eng. Masanja said despite the fact that the country has around 40,060 licensed large scale miners, most of them were not adhering to the laws of the land and the majority of them ended up occupying large areas for themselves.
He said such a trend by large scale miners of neglecting their very work of exploration and or extraction of minerals in such areas of their occupancy, was halting the development and growth of mineral sector in the country.
“The government is losing a lot in tax resulting from few unfaithful mineral exploration companies holding onto their license without doing the exploration and or extraction of minerals as per the requirements of their license,” Mr. Masanja explained.
He also noted that the government is intending to ensure that all speculators stop their operation in all the areas they occupy and allow new mineral investors to take over.
The Minister of Energy and Minerals Prof. Sospeter Muhongo warned the owners of minerals license in his 2013/14 financial budget to ensure that they honor the laws guiding minerals in the country to avoid them being revoked of their license.
So far Tanzania government has found different faults and given notice to some 289 companies licensed to conduct mineral exploration in the country between 2013 and2014 of which 211 license were for large scale mineral exploration whereas 78 were for medium scale extraction and one was for the large scale iron ore extraction.

By Kenan Kalagho, Monday, April 07th, 2014