‘You can import dynamites now,’ government tells local miners

MARC NKWAME in Arusha

THE government has given local miners in Arusha and Manyara Regions a green light to import dynamites for their operations as long as they are sure of its safe custody in their stores at their respective Mirerani quarries.

The Northern Zone’s Mining Commissioner, Mr Adam Rashid said here that each and every miner in need of the explosive from South Africa was allowed to do importation, after satisfying them with valid procedures and an assurance that their operations with it, will not cause injuries and deaths at the work places.

He said they will be allowed to apply for the licences and permits so as to offset the current shortage of the explosives in their operations, adding that acquisition of the papers was a directive for those willing to do importations.

Previously the importation of dynamites was allowed only to two private firms that supplied them countrywide, but the demand seemed to have exceeded supply in the market, with rather a chain of bureaucracies to acquire it.

The decision was reached after the local miners met the Prime Minister Mr Kassim Majaliwa, during his tour of Arusha, where they had complained to him that some government bureaucracies and processes of acquiring the explosive through some few specific individuals were real obstacles in their operations.

Mr Hussein Gonga one of the Directors of Tanzanite One Limited who spoke on behalf of other miners, had requested the Premier to grant them the opportunity to start importing their own dynamites as tools in their operations.

The miners, majority who work at the Mirerani Hills of Simanjiro District in Manyara Region, had explained to the premier that about 60 percent of Tanzanite mines there had been forced to face closure after running short of the tool to strike rocks in their quarries. Mr Rashid had informed the Prime Minister that, the country’s extractive industry was suffering because there was acute shortage of mining explosives.

The Mining Commissioner confirmed that there existed in reality only two firms, before naming them as Mzinga and Natron, as the sole importers of dynamites in the country.

He said at times the whole country was facing acute shortage of the explosives because the two companies could not easily supply all their customers on time, adding : “It was high time each operator was allowed to buy his or her own explosives from South Africa or anywhere.”

Mirerani Hills at the moment has 17 mining firms each with modern storage facilities to keep the dynamites, making a total of 17 proper storage warehouses for temporary supplies.

‘’We have opened new quarries in Komolo village at Simanjiro because the availability of dynamites is essential to all,” said Rashid.