Small-scale miners have voiced serious concerns over the proposed Mines and Minerals Bill urging lawmakers to streamline formalisation processes, cut financial burdens and extend the validity of key mining licenses.
The sentiments emerged during a Mines and Minerals Bill Expert Group/Stakeholders Meeting organised to unpack and analyze the newly gazetted bill’s implications on the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector.
“So, our analysis of the Mines and Minerals Bill is focused on the project components. The first one being formalisation. From this conference that we are having with the small-scale miners facilitated by the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, it is clear that the small-scale miners have a sense that the Bill should further simplify the formalisation processes for the small-scale miners,” said Nyaradzo Mutonhori, PlanetGold Zimbabwe project manager.
While applauding the Bill for finally defining who qualifies as a small-scale miner, stakeholders pushed for improvements.
“They applaud the bill for recognising small scale miners through defining for the first time in the mining laws of this country what a small-scale miner or who a small-scale miner is. But they feel more can be done in terms of improving that definition and also really streamlining the formalisation process for small scale miners such that it’s easier for them,” she said
Concerns also surround a growing list of financial obligations.
“Their primary concern as small scale miners is that there is also a huge financial burden that has been introduced or is being introduced through this bill. So, there are so many levies that they now have to pay and there are so many institutions and new agents that have been introduced, for example, the staking agents. This means they will need to pay more to formalise and to stay, you know, in compliance,” said Mutonhori
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The miners are also calling for extended validity periods for licenses like the exclusive exploration licence, currently capped at 12 months.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s commitment to the Minamata Convention on mercury is taking shape under the PlanetGold Zimbabwe project.
“In terms of the roadmap, we are implementing a national action plan on the Minamata Convention on mercury. So, in terms of this national action plan, as part of the Planet Gold Zimbabwe project, we are supposed to introduce mercury-free gold processing technologies,” Mutonhori added.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Wellington Takavarasha confirmed progress.
“This has kicked off with the involvement of PlanetGold, an environmental organisation. A round-robin has already started so that people are made aware, education awareness campaigns for people to actually stop using mercury. It is going to come to a time when everyone else in the world will be doing this, including the manufacturer of mercury. The people who are supplying and those other manufacturers of mercury will also be given time to actually tie down their operations,” said Takavarasha
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
