Govt: Dangote, mining firms have 3 months to list on DSE

Dodoma. The government has said 12 mining companies, including Dangote Industries Limited, must start processing of listing a minimum of 30 per cent of each company’s shareholding at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange by August this year.

Tabling the budget of the Energy and Minerals ministry yesterday, the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Charles Mwijage, named other mining firms that should list at the DSE by August as Acacia’s owned Bulyanhulu and North Mara Gold Mine as well as Pangea Minerals Ltd.

Other firms, according to Mr Mwijage, are Geita Gold Mining Ltd, Stamigold Company Ltd, Williamson Diamonds Ltd, Mantra Tanzania Ltd and El-Hilal Minerals Ltd and yet other mining companies are Kiwira Coal Mines Ltd, Tanzania China International Mineral Resources Ltd and Uranex Tanzania Ltd.

Mr Mwijage tabled the Energy and Minerals ministry’s budget in Parliament yesterday on behalf of the minister responsible for it, the position that is still vacant after the resignation of Prof Sospeter Muhungo last week over the mineral concentrates issue. A committee of experts appointed by President John Magufuli had found out that Acacia had under declared the amount of minerals in the concentrates and President Magufuli had asked Prof Muhongo to take responsibility by resigning.

Yesterday, Mr Mwijage said the mining firms in question were to list at the DSE by August after regulations were revised in February. In October 7, 2016, the government through the government Notice No 286 published the Mining (Minimum Shareholding and Public Offering) Regulations, 2016 that required mining companies holding special mining licences to list a minimum of 30 per cent of their shares to the DSE within two years for those firms that existed before the publishing of the regulations. Firms that would acquire the licences were to register at the DSE within one year of their existence, according to Mr Mwijage.

“But the government made some amendments and came up with the Mining (Minimum Shareholding and Public Offering) (Amendment) Regulations, 2016 that were published on February 24, 2017 by the GN No 44, requiring mining companies that were in existence at the publication of the regulations to list a minimum of 30 per cent of their shares at the DSE within six months after the publication of the new regulations,” Mr Mwijage said in his speech. He added: “The amended regulations require those mining firms that will come into existence after the publication of the regulations to list at the DSE immediately.”

The listing of mining companies is a requirement of the Mining Act, 2010. “This is an opportunity and I would advise Tanzanians to wake up and buy shares in those companies once they start selling shares to have ownership of the mining resources,” said Mr Mwijage.

Meanwhile, even as Mr Mwijage was tightening the noose on mining firms in Parliament President Magufuli for his part wanted the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority to deregister any telecommunication companies that had not listed at the DSE in accordance with the law instead of penalising them. He said this when he was officiating at the launching of the Electronic Revenue Collection System (ERCS) to improve tax collection.