DORMANT MINING LICENCES IRK STATE
EXPLORATION and mining licences should be left for serious investors to curb pilling up inactive licences, Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development Permanent Secretary Barnaby Mulenga has said.
Mr Mulenga said the number of dormant licences following the ongoing scrutiny was very disappointing.
He said in an interview that inactive people who were holding on to dormant mining and exploration licences were hindering genuine investors from carrying out mining in mineral rich areas.
Mr Mulenga warned that more dormant exploration and mining licences would be chopped to pave way for serious people who were going to extract mineral resources.
He said that Government only wanted serious people who were not XPLORATION and mining licences should be left for serious investors to curb pilling up inactive licences, Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development Permanent Secretary Barnaby Mulenga has said.
Mr Mulenga said the number of dormant licences following the ongoing scrutiny was very disappointing.
He said in an interview that inactive people who were holding on to dormant mining and exploration licences were hindering genuine investors from carrying out mining in mineral rich areas.
Mr Mulenga warned that more dormant exploration and mining licences would be chopped to pave way for serious people who were going to extract mineral resources.
He said that Government only wanted serious people who were not going to hold mining and exploration licences for formality.
Mr Mulenga said another massive cancellation exercise of inactive mining and exploration licences was looming.
“As Government, we are very serious about upscaling mining activities so we are not going to tolerate people holding on to licences just for formality. They are blocking those are can seriously carry out mining activities. So watch the space, we will be cancelling more dormant licences,” he said.
Mr Mulenga advised people who were holding exploration and mining licences to ensure that they were put to good use.
He said some people had been holding on to the licences for a very long period of time without doing anything when others would have put them to good use.
And Government recently revoked about 840 dormant mining and exploration licences out of the 3,180 active ones.
These included large-scale exploration, small-scale exploration, small-scale mining, large-scale mining, artisans mining right and mineral processing licences.
The revocations follow President Edgar Lungu’s recent directive to the ministry to cancel all dormant mining and exploration licences in the country.