Tanzania President John Magufuli. He inaugurated the Great Mirerani
Wall, a 24.5km wall surrounding Mirerani tanzanite mine on April 6,
2018. PHOTO | REUTERS
Tanzania has collected Tsh615 million ($270,000) as royalty from tanzanite small-scale miners in the first three months of 2018.
This, the government says, is $100,000 more than the total collected in the last three years.
Minerals
minister Angellah Kairuki said the increase (59 per cent) arose after
government introduced controls to curb illegal mining of the blue-violet
gemstone that is only found in Tanzania.
Last year, a
parliamentary committee investigated tanzanite mining and reported that
there was massive smuggling. The investigation revealed that the
country only received 5.2 per cent of revenues from global tanzanite
trade over the past decade.
Last September,
President John Magufuli ordered the military to build a 24km-long wall
with security cameras and checkpoints around tanzanite mining site in
the northern region to control illegal mining and trading activities. He inaugurated the Great Mirerani Wall in April.
"Due
to such steps, the government collected Tsh714.67 million ($313,000) as
royalty for three months with Tsh614.67 million ($270,000) being from
artisanal tanzanite miners," Ms Kairuki told parliament on Thursday.
She was tabling her ministry's budget for the 2018/2019 financial year which starts in July.
Ms
Kairuki said the government had collected Tsh147.14 million ($64,700)
in royalties from the small-scale miners in 2017, Tsh71.86 million
($31,600) in 2016 and Tsh166.85 million ($73,400) in 2015.
The
Minerals budget has increased from Tsh52.445 billion ($23 million) in
the current financial year to Tsh58.9 billion ($26 million).
Ms
Kairuki said her ministry has only received 36 per cent of the current
budget, released in March, and 3.8 per cent of the development budget.
Tanzania
is overhauling its laws in the mining sector to enable it get a bigger
slice of the pie from its vast mineral resources.
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