Mining in Geita earns govt over Sh130m royalties

Geita. At least Sh137.9 million in royalties and Sh22 million in mineral inspection fees were collected in Geita Region from 40 permits for mineral processing between June 1 and June 9.

This was revealed in Parliament yesterday by the minister for Minerals, Ms Angela Kairuki.

The money will likely surpass the collection recorded in May when the region pocketed royalties totalling Sh210 million from about 42,000 grams of gold worth Sh3.5 billion.

‘We achieved a lot in just 10 days since the ban was announced. It is our belief that the ban will help the government to collect sufficient revenue, something which will boost economic activities around mining sites,” she said.

Ms Kairuki was responding to a question from Tarime Rural MP (Chadema) John Heche.

According to the minister, all the raw minerals should be processed in the region where they are extracted in order to enable the government to collect enough revenues and royalties as well as minimise mineral smuggling.

Ms Kairuki went on to explain that so far there were mineral processing plants in almost all regions where mining activities took place.

“They are in Geita, Shinyanga, Tabora, Dodoma, Songwe and Singida. Other regions have already allocated plots where they will install the plants,” she said.

However, Mr Heche said he was not satisfied with the government’s response, saying the minister provided false information.

The outspoken Chadema lawmaker echoed by Nyamagana MP (CCM) Stanslaus Mabula said the ban would result in closure of the plants in Mwanza, considering that majority of the owners borrowed capital.

After weighing contributions from the lawmakers, chairman of Parliament, Mr John Chenge, instructed the government to revisit the decision.

constructed, calling on the users to utilize it beneficially.

“Due to the climate change and ever increasing water levels in the Indian Ocean, the centre will be of great importance and we are happy that it has been constructed as requested. So, it is our expectations that this zone will benefit from it,”said MsMari.

A fisherman at Deep Sea in the region, MrFaki Salim Haji, called upon the organs engaged in data dissemination about weather conditions to announce them on time to avoid accidents that might occur because of strong winds on the sea.

However, Tanga Region’s Sumatra manager,DrWalukaniLuhamba, explained that there was a problem in receiving information by users of the Indian Ocean, whereby, he said, some of them including owners of passenger vessels and fishermen ignored precautionary information and finally finding themselves sinking.