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Small-scale mining: Why are we stuck?
2008-03-25 09:14:36
By Editor
Laws and policies are there for a reason, otherwise parliaments and other bodies formulating them should be declared redundant.
However elegant or well-meaning a piece of legislation is, it is of no use if it is implemented and tested through veritable actions whose results can easily be measured against agreed benchmarks.
Tanzania`s 1998 legislation on mining contains clauses committing the government to the extension of technical and marketing support to the country’s small-scale mining industry.
Although the legislation has won world acclaim for making Tanzania the most attractive country in Africa to mining conglomerates, it has done little to help small miners to improve their lot.
It states that the government would oversee training on mining safety, transfer of affordable technologies, and the imparting of processing and mineral beneficiation skills to small miners in the country.
Yet, evidence of the implementation of the legislation is scanty.
By and large, the small scale mining industry continues to be as precariously exposed to serious hazards as it has always been.
For instance, a study undertaken by the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark in collaboration with the University of Dar es Salaam some eight years ago warned that small miners were carelessly using mercury and posing serious health hazards to themselves and neighbouring communities.
And last week this paper revealed that small gold miners in western Tanzania have been handling mercury without any protective gear, while all mining, crushing and grinding processes were manual.
Large quantities of mercury are thus released into the environment, with some inhaled by the miners and residents of surrounding villages.
The poor miners are not to blame for depending on rudimentary gold recovery techniques, for this has long been identified as one of their weaknesses that ought to be addressed through the force of law – and hence the 1998 legislation.
Health experts warn that methyl mercury is harmful to early human life.
The primary health impact is impaired neurological development, which at times could lead to mental retardation, as contaminated drainage systems infests the food chain through consumption of fish.
The College of Engineering and Technology of the University of Dar es Salaam has developed an appropriate technology called `gold retort` to help small mining firms to process gold more safely. Unfortunately, it has not been adopted yet.
We have failed even to adopt and adapt to home-made technologies proved to be useful to small-scale mining operations since the mid-1990s.
Sometime in February 2004, the lack of attention to our own laws and policies raised even greater concern as all manner of accidents continued to cause havoc among small miners, mainly because there was minimal adherence to safety and environmental standards.
Surprisingly, the government set up a mineral policy review committee to prepare an in-depth review of the mineral sector.
This sought to make the sector be of greater benefit to the country’s economy, including small-scale mining, local economic development and skills development.
The committee`s review is yet to be made public. The nation deserves convincing explanation.
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