Artisanal miners call upon President Dr Magufuli to honour pledge

By Ndeninsia Lisley

The President Dr John Magufuli

 Small scale miners have called upon President John Magufuli to live up to his promise to designate to them mining areas where the large scale miners are not using.

 

Managing Director of the Nsangano Goldmine Project, Renatus Nsangano made the call when speaking to a team of journalists who visited the Geita based mine recently.

 

Journalists were in the region to visit the implementation of child labour project in mining areas by Plan International.

 

Nsangano also called upon the government to help them research their mining areas because; “as small miners, we don’t have modern technology to know where exactly we can excavate,” he explained.

 

“We call upon the government to help us get technology that will help us research our areas,” he emphasised.

 

Geita Regional Miners Association (GEREMA) secretary Golden Hainga said currently there are no children working in their mines.

 

“After Plan International trained us on child labour and child rights, miners were advised not to hire children in mining areas,” he said.

 

Implemented by Plan International, the Child Labour Project first phase commenced in 2012 in Geita Region aimed to abolish child labour especially in mining areas funded by European Union (EU) and France development organisation.