Revised law to give impetus to mining

FINALISATION of the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, which was approved by Cabinet last week, will bring sanity to the mining sector through solving disputes between farmers and miners, and ensuring ease of administration and compliance.

Last week, Cabinet approved the long-standing Bill, whose provisions include establishment of the Office of the Mining Cadastre Registry and Mining Cadastre Register to record all current mining rights and titles.

The initial Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill was passed by Parliament in 2019 but President Mnangagwa reffered it back. It was then sent back to Parliament to address contentious issues.

It was feared that some clauses in the Bill would violate property rights.

There were reservations on a clause that gave priority to miners instead of farmers in cases were a mineral would have been discovered on arable land.

At a post-Cabinet briefing last week, ICT, Postal and Courier Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere, who was standing in for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa, said the amendments “will enhance security of mining titles” and “address areas of dispute between farmers and miners.”

The Chamber of Mines Zimbabwe (CoMZ) president Mr Collins Chibafa said approval of the Bill by Cabinet is a notable milestone considering that the process to overhaul the current Mines and Minerals Act has been in the pipeline since 2015.

“However, significant work still needs to be done in developing new regulations to give effect to the new provisions introduced by the Bill, where such regulations do not exist,” he said.

CoMZ has been actively involved in providing the mining industry’s input to the proposed amendments.

Government and mining sector players are agreed that the Mines and Minerals Act could do with a substantial overhaul to bring it in sync with international best practice.

The proposed new law will introduce a new system under which prospecting licences will be called “exclusive prospecting licences” that will restrict each licensee to prospect within a single defined area.

The actual pegging and other acts of demarcation on the ground and on a map can only be done by a staking agent on behalf of the prospector, unless the prospector is also registered as a staking agent.

A prospecting licensee will not be allowed to remove minerals from the land on which they are found, except for purposes of assaying.

This clause is the first of many that are designed to resolve disputes between prospectors and miners on the one hand and farmers and other landholders on the other.

It sets the pattern for other clauses addressing farmer/miner disputes.

The Bill also provides for the establishment of the Mining Affairs Board with functions similar to the existing board.

However, its composition now includes miners, farmers and other stakeholders.

Mr Chibafa also said limiting mining title to three – blocks of claims, mining lease and special grants – was a welcome development. Blocks of claims are for local miners and should not exceed four.

“The simplification of the mining titles system will allow for ease of administration and ease of compliance.

“We anticipate that any special conditions of any licence will be endorsed on the licence, which becomes part of the reporting/compliance requirements for maintaining the title,” he said.

Disputes in the industry, he added, would be addressed through the establishment of the Mining Cadastre Registry and the Mining Cadastre Register, which records all current mining rights and titles.

Provisions of the Bill also outline procedures for ensuring that the interests of farming and mining activities on land are accorded their due recognition.

As part of far-reaching measures to reform the sector, Government will also be amending the Gold Trade Act and Precious Stones Act.

Authorities are also working on a minerals development policy, an artisanal small-scale gold mining strategy and a beneficiation and value-addition strategy.

Overall, Zimbabwe plans to promote sustainable exploration, mining, beneficiation, value addition, marketing and management of the country’s mineral resources.

According to Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando, the Bill is critical to realising a US$12 billion mining industry by next year.

“We believe the mining sector is on track to meet the US$12 billion target, with the sector expected to achieve US$6 billion by the end of this year,” he said.