The Sunday Mail
Anaphy Mkwanda
Government is in the process of amending provisions of the Mines and Minerals Act to enable it to repossess under-utilised mining claims being held for speculation.
The amendments are also intended to achieve the following main objects:
(a) to provide for mining title to be granted in the form of a mining lease, where the title extends over four or more contiguous blocks;
(b) to require holders of mining rights to work their claims rather than allowing them to preserve their title by paying annual fees;
(c) to require miners to establish funds or to make other provision to meet the cost of restoring the environment when their mining operations come to an end;
(d) to convert certain special grants into mining leases; and
(e) to make provision for the indigenisation and localisation of the mining industry.
In this article, we will focus on the last two objectives: conversion of special grants into mining leases and provisions for indigenisation and localisation of the mining industry.
A Special Grant title provides the holder with the right to prospect for minerals in an area reserved against prospecting and pegging of claims.
The title provides the duration of validity of the right to prospect and peg and the terms and conditions under which title will operate.
With respect to mining leases, the holder of a mining location or contiguous registered mining locations may make written application to the mining commissioner for the issuance of a mining lease in respect to a defined area within which such locations are situated.
The holder of a mining lease has the exclusive right of mining any deposit or mineral that occurs within the vertical limits of his lease.
Our understanding of the proposed conversion from special grants to mining leases is to free up reserved areas allowing for broader participation of the ordinary people to carry out prospecting and mining operations.
In addition, this promotes the use-it or lose-it approach in the principal Act.
The process of indigenisation seeks to redress the imbalances of the past by pursuing to substantially and equitably transfer and confer the ownership, management and control of financial and economic resources to the majority of indigenous citizens.
Other definitions used to explain indigenisation include:
— “the fact of making something more native; transformation of some service, idea, etcetera to suit a local culture, especially through the use of more indigenous people in administration, employment etc”;
— “to increase local participation in or ownership of: to indigenise foreign-owned companies to adapt (beliefs, customs, etc) to local ways”; or
— “seeking to ensure broader and meaningful participation in the economy by native people to achieve sustainable development and prosperity”.
The Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill “indigenises” and “localises” the mining industry by stating the objectives of the Government which are to:
1. Obtain a 25 percent non-contributory interest in every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any one or more strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones;
2. Obtain a 25 percent contributory interest in every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any one or more strategic energy minerals;
3. Require every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any one or more precious metals or precious stones, to make available 25 percent of its shares available for acquisition by the State or indigenous Zimbabweans; and
4. Require every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any mineral other than a strategic energy mineral, precious metals or precious stones, to make available 51 percent of its shares available for acquisition by the State or indigenous Zimbabweans.
A right of first refusal for the purchase of the shares in any mining entity is given to the State and to indigenous Zimbabweans.
Future mining enterprises will either be required to comply immediately with the indigenisation or localisation requirements, or, like existing enterprises, may also be given time within which to comply.
Ownership, according to Black’s Law dictionary, is defined as the collection of rights allowing one to use and enjoy property, including the right to convey it to others.
The reason as to why ownership is important in the Zimbabwean context is because in the late 1800s, Zimbabwe became a colony of the British; the indigenous people were rendered tenants at the will of the British.
Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to indigenous people for a range of reasons, including the religious significance of the land, self-determination, identity, and economic factors.
Indigenous business entities create an economy that is owned by indigenous Zimbabweans and tends to have local developmental orientation.
This orientation fosters entrepreneurship and, in turn, raises the standards of living.
Anaphy Mkwanda is a natural resources consultant, and wrote this article for The Sunday Mail
