COMMERCIAL GOLD MINING
WE completely oppose the evolving Government policy of limiting gold mining to artisanal miners. This will take us nowhere.
It is true that gold belongs to Zambians, but it is not true that we should exploit the resource in a manner that does not bring the best results.
Indeed, posterity will judge the government very harshly if this opportunity of abundance is squandered for political correctness and in fear of public criticism.
Government must do the right thing to mainstream gold production by engaging the abundant indigenous technical expertise to explore and identify the main deposits against which external capital can be recruited at our terms.
The local universities have expertise in metallurgy and mining techniques which include open pit and underground mining which should be employed to identify the most appropriate means of extracting the gold at an economical and environmentally sound method.
Our colleagues in Ghana, Africa’s largest gold mining country, have realised just as much. As a result they have allowed a mixture of artisanal and large scale mining to co-exist.
The result is that artisanal miners contribute 35 percent of the total gold output with the rest comes from largescale foreign mining companies.
In Tanzania President John Magufuli has maintained running battle with largescale mining companies from which he has extracted a 16 percent holding after long spells of protracted standoffs.
South Africa is different. Gold mining continues t reserved for largescale mining with local people scavenging in disused pits as “Zamazama.”
The “Zamazama” of South Africa like their colleagues in Zambia, Tanzania and indeed Ghana have one thing in common. They do hard back breaking work for a little return and most of them are illegal, using dangerous chemicals including mercury to refine their gold.
Their output therefore is limited and unless properly chaperoned or supervised will have very little impact on the economy as it ends up on the illegal market.
The experience of Ghana is particularly instructive where the discovery of gold invited all manner of illegal miners and especially Chinese, Armenians, Russians, and other neighbouring countries.
This foreign involvement was a cause of considerable controversy and discontent, until the Ghanaian government was subsequently forced to pass several pieces of legislation acknowledging artisanal miners who were allowed to acquire mining rights to a specific area to work.
Under the Mining and Mineral Act of 2006, they were allowed concessions of up to 25 acres maximum in designated areas, controlled by a Mineral Commission.
The same could be done in Zambia. Areas with proven alluvial or easy to mine deposits could be set aside for Zambians, while the more difficult and therefore more productive areas could be assigned for commercial mining.
The task of identifying effective mining areas should fall upon an immediate task force that should be set to work before the onset of the rain season.
This will facilitate the recruitment of requisite capital and if need be airfreighting appropriate mining equipment to ensure that before the year ends, Zambians enjoy the benefit of their gold.
This is true of all other mineral resources including manganese, cobalt and copper.
We need a “Marshall Plan.”