Small scale and artisanal miners have called on the government to fast-track the zero draft on formalisation as it will reduce conflict between the large scale and small scale miners and incorporate the . the gemstone , base metals and gold sectors once approved.
Speaking during the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe Annual Conference held in Victoria Falls last week, the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president Henrietta Rushwaya said the government should also include them in their budgets and come up with grants that will be assigned to small-scale miners to enhance their growth.
“Honourable Minister can you bring this matter to the Justice Minister that the Attorney General’s office is delaying unnecessarily in ensuring that policies to do with mining are put in place and this is greatly affecting our sector.
“There are case studies which have been carried out in Tanzania where they have primary mining licenses issued specifically to indigenous Tanzanians.
“In Zambia they have got a three-tier system where you have artisanal mining licences which are issued to miners who occupy and use less than 5 hectares of land. We have a small-scale mining license and a large-scale mining license which is actually issued to the three different participants.
“We also have a lack of financial loans from banks and this is caused by our lack of resources and lack of information to enable us to qualify for the Know Your Client data sheets. If you have a bank visiting small-scale miners, wanting to sponsor or wanting to give the miners loans, our miners do not usually qualify hence their inability to access loans.
“We are saying to the banks, your KYC process should also move with the times instead of coming up with a huge document wanting us to put our details, please come up with a sheet that should not be more than at least two pages where you will do the questioning and we just sign as small scale miners because most of our miners are not educated.
“All they need to do is just to be told if they qualify or not and if you need any information from our sector, kindly ask us orally because we are not that techno savy,” she said.
She added that small-scale miners also lack geological information and as such, most of their mining activities are due to guess work.
“We just dig randomly without properly getting information as to how we arrive to acquiring and attaining a particular product from down under.
“We also face a lack of human capital and use unqualified personnel , which has resulted in a lot of lives being lost and this is actually a cause for concern.
“Honurable Minister, with the involvement of big mines, we would like to make a request that they also help small-scale miners with human capital that will teach the sector how proper safe mining is carried out.
“Our expectations from the government are that we should have a statutory instrument that empowers miners, and that we migrate from Environmental Impact Assessment to Environmental Management Processes.
“We are also looking at the strengthening of the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining desk to a department which focuses on the ASM sector,” she said.
Meanwhile, Rushwaya will be attending the Minex Southern Region expo to be held in Zvishavane on the 13th of June to discuss some of the challenges facing small-scale miners together with the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Winston Chitando who is the guest of honour.
The Minex expo will also be graced by delegates from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Fidelity Printers, and Refiners, Environmental Management Agency (EMA), the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, National Social Security Authority (NSSA), Minerals Border Control Unit (MBCU), Mimosa, Zimshec, and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA).
