Africa-Press – Mozambique. Foreign citizens involved in artisanal mining in Cabo Delgado will not be covered by the nationwide artisanal mining census that the Mozambican government intends to carry out. Provincial authorities have confirmed that only Mozambicans mining mineral resources by hand will be surveyed.
“Only Mozambicans will be registered in this artisanal census and, at the moment, we are not interested in foreign artisanal miners,” explained Norte Luali, director of Provincial Infrastructure Services at the start of the training of the census teams.
Although practically all artisanal mining in Cabo Delgado is controlled by foreign nationals, who illegally excavate, sell and even export mineral resources, the provincial government does not see the need to include them in the census which starts next month.
“At provincial level, the census will be carried out in 88 artisanal mining centres, where there are many foreigners, but as these people who constantly enter and leave the country, there is no need to include them in our statistics,” Luali explained.
The artisanal mining census will be taken from 11th October to 9th November, and will, for the first time in the country’s history, establish exactly how many Mozambicans are involved in artisanal mining.
Resources exploited by hand in Cabo Delgado include gold, rubies and other precious and semi-precious stones. Every year, dozens of artisanal miners lose their lives when the unsafe mines they dig collapse.
By
Hizidine Acha
