Focus on the survival of small-scale miners

The livelihood of 2,447 small-scale miners in northern Tanzania is threatened following a government decision in favour of large-scale mining concerns in two regions where the miners had been engaging in artisanal mining for years, according to a miners' representative. However, government officials and representatives of the mining companies have denied claims that the small-scale miners were forced off the land. Tundu Lissu, a lawyer with the Lawyers Environmental Action Team (LEAT), which is representing the small-scale miners, told IRIN on Thursday that the socioeconomic impact of turning the areas into large-scale mining operations had been disastrous, as "the income of thousands had disappeared". LEAT said that since the evictions, people had been without any real employment. While many ended up moving to towns, near the mine and to Dar es Salaam, others remained outside the mine perimeter fences surviving on subsistence farming. Lissu said not only were thousands of Tanzanians directly involved in the artisanal mining but also that thousands of other people had been earning their living in nearby communities by providing the miners with goods and services. Businesses that had sprung up alongside these small-scale mining operations collapsed. According to LEAT, the artisanal miners were evicted, without compensation, from mining areas in the Tabora and Mara regions in northern Tanzania after the government allowed the launch of large-scale mining operations in the regions. LEAT accused the government of bowing to pressure from the international companies and ignoring legislation protecting the rights of the small-scale miners in order to develop large-scale mining. However, an assistant commissioner of minerals, Hamisi Komba, told IRIN on Thursday that allegations that the small-scale miners had been evicted from their land were inaccurate. "The government can't and did not force the miners out of the area," he said. "There was an agreement between the mining companies and the artisanal miners." He dismissed the idea that the development of large-scale mining might have a negative socioeconomic impact. "We are satisfied with the progress we are making in mining and we feel the move is the right one," he said. Two of the country's largest gold-mining companies with operations in the regions also denied accusations levelled against them by LEAT. Afrika Mashiriki Gold Mine and Resolute Tanzania Ltd told IRIN that the claims were unfounded and that the miners' claims had been dealt with lawfully. LEAT also criticised the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRGG), a rights watchdog, for failing to investigate the matter fully. "As far back as the 1980s, the government set aside Nzega [in Tabora Region] and Tarime [in Mara Region] as areas for small-scale mining," Lissu told reporters on Monday. "This means that the areas shouldn't be opened up to large companies." He added: "Needless to say, in 1996, ignoring their previous decrees, the government called villagers and told them that the areas were to be developed by large companies. No compensation was offered to these people." However, Ron Clarke, the managing director of Resolute Tanzania Ltd, which operates a mine in Nzega, said that Samax Resources, the company that had carried out the original exploration in the area, had paid "all the compensation that was required". He said, "Everything was done in a transparent manner, in conjunction with the government and officials." Samax could not immediately provide the exact figures paid in compensation to the small-scale miners. Clarke said that problems had arisen because compensation could only be paid to people or organisations with legal mining claims. "It was then up to these people to make sure that others involved in the areas were duly compensated," he said. Similarly, Afrika Mashiriki Gold Mine, with a mine in Tarime, said LEAT's claim that small-scale miners were forcibly evicted and refused compensation was "totally wrong". "From the beginning, there were agreements between the small-scale miners and ourselves," Josephat Mwita, the company's manager of government relations, said on Tuesday. "They invited us in to determine the amount of gold that was there. Then some of them decided to sell their claims, but reclaim some royalties." Mwita accused LEAT of "mixing a lot of issues" when it claimed that the mining company had used the police's Field Force Unit to forcibly remove people from their land. "These were people that had invaded our mining area in 2001 and were trying to force us to pay money we didn't owe them. The authorities were merely exercising the law," he said. Moreover, the presence of small-scale miners in a particular area did not preclude the establishment of larger-scale operations, Mwita said. Both companies said that, aside from the taxes they paid to the government, they were also investing large sums in providing social services such as education, health, and water and sanitation in the areas where their mines were operating. Lissu urged the CHRGG to conduct a full investigation into "the facts and circumstances" of how the companies had obtained their licences, and whether the alleged evictions effected in compliance with the country's mining laws and constitution. "We went to the commission asking them to reopen the investigation into the events," Lissu said. "So far we have not had any reply. If they do not investigate, we shall take them to the high court." When contacted, no one at the commission was available for comment.