Help for Small-Scale Miners Commendable

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

13 April 2011

editorial

With the government now providing financial support to small-scale miners to enable them to acquire better equipment and gain superior technical know-how, their fortunes can only get better.

About Sh345 million has already been given out in soft loans to small mining companies to help them improve their extraction ability. According to the deputy minister for Minerals and Energy, Mr Adam Malima, this is part of the Sh5 billion fund set aside for assistance to artisanal miners. Mr Malima says mineral value addition centres have also been opened in Dar es Salaam to improve on the final products

This is commendable, considering the pathetic situation of the small-scale miners. The coming of foreign investors, though, laudable, has led to marginalisaiton of the local miners in various ways. As attention has shifted to the big investments, many of the small timers have had to close up shop because of lack of markets and decreasing mining areas. As the industry started growing at an average of 11 per cent annually and exports reached $1 billion a year in the last five years, the contribution of small miners was shrinking.

The poor tools and lack of capital and technical know-how mean they cannot in any way compete with the large, foreign miners. We hope the financial aid will be extended to all small-scale miners around the country to secure the livelihoods of about 600,000 people employed in the sector. Currently, according to Mr Malima, only five small mining companies have benefited from this aid.

We, therefore, urge the government to improve the programme and cater for much more beyond financial aid. The small-scale miners should be enabled to enter into joint ventures with foreign investors. Also crucial is the need to develop capable local suppliers for both the small and big mining concerns. In this way, the local population will be able to benefit more from the sector.

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