LOCAL MANGANESE MINERS CRY FOUL

The small scale miners in the province were not happy with the way the mining licenses were being issued in Lusaka. — Peggy Mumba

GOVERNMENT-should curb the illegal mining of Manganese in Luapula by putting in place strict measures.

This is according to Luapula Small Scale Mining Association president Peggy Mumba. Ms Mumba said in an interview that there was a scramble for manganese in Luapula province with some people pretending to be investors when in actual fact they were middle men. “There has been a lot of illegal mining in the province which is proving to be difficult to control because some deposits are being found on people’s farmlands, prices for manganese are very low with a tonne selling as low as K500 locally. “There is a scramble for manganese in Luapula Province, investors are coming into the province pretending to be investors only for them to be middle men, when they come here we don’t see any development that there are leaving in our area apart from the ditches,” she said. Ms Mumba said there was too much illegal mining in the province being perpetrated by investors who come into the country. She said the small scale miners in the province were not happy with the way the mining licences were being issued in Lusaka. “Most of the areas have been given to foreign investors, the criteria of issuing licences is not Clearly understood,” Ms Mumba said. And Mansa village industry secretary general, Nathan Ng’andwe, urged Government to issue manganese mining licences to local people unlike issuing them to foreigners who did not invest their capital back into the economy,. Mr Ng’andwe said it was unfortunate that most mining licenses for manganese were being issued to foreign investors and yet local small scale miners had the capacity to operate the mines. “We do not like the way the mining licences are being issued in Lusaka. Most areas have been given to foreign investors who do not know where the mines are. “We have been with these mines for some time and instead of issuing the licences to the first applicants; they issue them to a person who comes later. The criterion for licences is not clearly understood by us. Luapula small scale miners so that we contribute to this economy,” he said.