- Speaker Ndugai promises to form special committee
NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Job Ndugai yesterday promised to form a special committee to look into the trade and value chain of exported mineral sand for smelting.
Speaking during his visit to the Dar es
Salaam Port, Mr Ndugai said the envisaged committee, its members and
responsibilities will be announced during the budget session expected to
start next month.
The Speaker witnessed over 260 detained
containers full of mineral sand at the port, following President John
Magufuli’s ban on their export. The mineral sand is a concentrate of
gold, silver and copper.
“We will announce the committee during
the budget session, because we cannot do that right now for we have to
sit down and discuss with other members. We want to know about the trade
and its beneficiaries,” he stressed.
He said Members of Parliament (MPs) were shocked by the unearthed high number of mineral sand containers at the port.
“Tanzanians need to know about this
mineral sand trade, who has been benefiting from it since it began in
1998,” he queried, noting that the committee will also look into
investment in the mining sector in its totality, including contracts,
legislations and how Tanzanians benefit from the mineral sand.
Mr Ndugai said the amount of gold in the
exported sand is negligible as compared to copper and silver, wondering
why the investors have been exporting thousands of sand containers.
“We cannot understand why the investors
continue exporting thousands of sand containers to extract gold whose
content is merely 0.02 per cent,” he charged, adding: “It is high time
we safeguarded the interest of Tanzanians through our natural
resources.”
Referring to Tanzania Mineral Audit
Agency (TMAA) report, Mr Ndugai said over 50,000 sand containers were
shipped abroad annually, translating into over one million containers
since 1998.
“We would like to know who supervises
and protects the interests of Tanzania from the source point where the
sand is collected to its destination abroad... we must act against the
indiscriminate shipping of our riches away. Why should Tanzanians
continue wallowing in poverty, with donor dependency budget,” he
stressed.
The Speaker said the parliament move
will not affect the government’s strategies to deal with the issue.
“But, the National Assembly through the special committee will come up
with recommendations.”
During the tour of the containers,
Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) Director General Engineer Deusdedit
Kakoko expressed surprise over continued transportation of the mineral
sand to the port despite the presidential directive, which he termed a
decree.
“We have detained these containers
because President Magufuli’s ban is a decree... a law. We expected other
agencies to stop processing documents for the sand containers as well,
yet we keep receiving them, some fully processed for shipping out,” he
explained.
Eng Kakoko said after Dr Magufuli
visited the port, over 250 sand containers were unearthed already lined
up for shipping out, charging that he believed 90 per cent of the sand
is gold and not copper as TMAA officials claim.
TMAA acting Managing Director Engineer
Gilay Shamika said contents in the mineral sand are 90 per cent copper,
0.02 per cent gold and 0.08 per cent silver, noting that they
participated in the whole process, including taking samples and
ascertaining the contents before the investors paid the respective
revenues to Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).
“Once we are satisfied of the contents
and the investors have paid the respective revenues, TMAA and TRA seal
the containers,” he explained.
The Acacia Mining, Tanzania’s biggest
gold producer, was quoted in the media saying that it was incurring an
average daily loss of over one million US dollars (over 2bn/-) in
revenue at its two mines in Tanzania due to the government’s ban on
exports of gold and copper concentrate.
Acacia said since the ban was enforced
on March 3, 2017, it has been compelled to take a range of actions to
mitigate the financial impact while ensuring continued safe operations
at Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines.
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