Helping small-scale miners a noble duty

By Editor

 

Editorial Cartoon

Tanzania has for years now opened its doors to foreign investors, notable among them being those in the mining sector. Several mines have been established by foreign investors with massive capital as opposed to local small-scale miners.


Today thousands of Tanzanians, including children, work in licensed and unlicensed small-scale gold mines in the country, Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer. They dig and drill in deep, unstable pits, working underground for shifts around the clock and later crushing bags of gold ore using hopelessly inferior tools.

What’s more, they risk injury in the event of pits collapsing, not to talk of the long-term threats to their health what with the fact that they are dangerously exposed to mercury, breathe dust and carry heavy loads.

The plight of these men, women and children is graphically depicted in the photograph we ran in yesterday’s issue of this paper of a woman small-scale gold miner at work at Kibaga village in Tarime District. She was exposed to great danger because she was handling mercury without any protective gear – that is, with her bare hands!

Unfortunately, these hapless people are lured to the gold mines in the hope of getting a better life, only to find themselves stuck in a dead-end cycle of danger, poverty and despair. Many children who work in mines lack basic needs and therefore lead extremely difficult lives.

According to Human Rights Watch, young girls on and around mining sites face sexual harassment, some becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation and risking contracting sexually transmitted diseases – even HIV infection.

We are glad to learn that over 300 small-scale miners operating near African Barrick Gold’s North Mara Gold Mine in Tarime District will benefit from a modern gold processing plant, thanks to World Wildlife Fund support.

The move is geared towards safeguarding the miners from the environmental and health hazards associated with using mercury contamination during gold extraction alongside boosting the income they get from gold production.

While welcoming this new move by ABG, we would appreciate seeing more mining firms emulating the goodwill gesture for the benefit of small-scale miners in their areas of operation.

In fact, all other investors in the country, and not only in the mining sector, ought to take a leaf from the laudable intervention as part of their corporate social responsibility.

We have in mind such firms as hotel establishments in our national parks, sugar estates, breweries, etc., etc. All should feel compelled to give corporate responsibility a good name.

They could do so by supporting the construction of schools, health facilities and other social amenities for use by their neighbours. That would be an excellent way of complementing the government’s efforts in uplifting the welfare of our people, most of whom live below the poverty line and are badly in need of assistance aimed at adding meaning to their lives.

Investors should take the welfare of small miners as a responsibility because, after all, tat would enhance harmony between the two parties. Indeed, they need each other. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN