THE Tanzanian and Ugandan governments have assured their nationals of sustained strengthening of cooperation on geological issues and sharing of mining technologies in a bid to improve mining activities in the two countries.
This is intended to produce a win-win situation by improving the countries’ economies through mineral sector.
The remarks were made here yesterday by Uganda’s Minister of State for Mineral Development, Mr Peter Lokeris and Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Minerals, Mr Stanslaus Nyongo, during a meeting held here.
The Ugandan delegation comprises two cabinet ministers, 10 ministerial officials, 17 artisan miners, six local government officials and two officials from the Minerals Protection Unit of the Police Force.
During their five-day visit, they will visit mining sites for purposes of benchmarking best mining practices that can also be replicated in Uganda.
In his remarks, Mr Nyongo praised the delegation for selecting Tanzania as a country where they could learn and share experiences on the mining sector.
He paid tribute to Mr Lokeris for fulfilling the promise he made in December 2017 to visit the country and bring along some small scale miners for them to learn how the country was managing the sector.
“This is a very important meeting, as through this we can continue sharing our experience in incubating our small scale mining subsector and if possible to assist the miners to share their strength and opportunities between our two sister countries,” he explained.
The deputy minister told the guests that currently, there are seven active large scale mines, four for gold, one for diamonds, one for Tanzanite and one for coal.
He added that there were 28 active medium scale mines, mostly for gold industrial minerals and building materials. “Small scale mining is found throughout the country with more than 35,000 licences mainly for industrial minerals, gold, diamonds, building materials and coloured gemstones,” the deputy minister said.
He said the fifth phase government under President John Magufuli had been working tirelessly to ensure that the country collected taxes from the mineral sector and at curb smuggling.
“ The mineral sector is very crucial for national development but a good strategy is necessary to make it possible,” he added.
Despite the challenges that the mineral sector has been facing since independence, Mr Nyongo told the delegation that in the mid- 1990s the government undertook a series of reforms of the macro-economic environment to promote socio-economic development. Mr Lokeris thanked the government for accepting their request to visit mining sites in the country.
“ As you are aware, Uganda’s mining industry is dominated by artisanal and small scale mining operations.
Over one million Ugandans directly or indirectly benefit from artisanal and small scale mining operations, and that is why we are here today for benchmarking the best mining practices that can also help our people,” he said, adding that the benchmarking trip is expected to improve the existing ASM management strategy, inform mechanism to regulate ASM movement from one mining area to another, encourage ASM participation in supply chain initiatives and ease monitoring, evaluation and improvement of ASM practices in the two countries.
