24 December 2007
Maputo — The major challenge facing the Mozambican Ministry of Mineral Resources in 2008 will be to implement an effective inspection and control system in order to clamp down on illegal mining.
The Minister of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias, told AIM that illegal mining damages the country's resources, and brings no benefits - not even for the illegal miners themselves, who are paid a pittance for what they dig up, normally by unlicensed foreign traders.
Bias argued that a proper inspection system goes hand in hand with a strong private mining sector. A duly licensed company, investing in mining activities, will want to profit from its activities, she said, and will not want to see those profits eroded by illegal operators.
She was confident that such mining companies will help the state combat illegal mining - something which, she admitted, the state could not do on its own.
The central province of Manica and the northern province of Niassa are where the most serious incidents of illegal mining have been reported. Zimbabwean citizens in Manica and Tanzanians in Niassa have been particularly involved in looting Mozambique's resources - but people from as far away as Nigeria and Mali have also been involved.
A newly discovered deposit of tourmalines, and particularly of the red variety of tourmaline known as rubelite, attracted a rush of diggers to the Manica district of Barue. Not knowing the true value of the stones, the Mozambican miners were handing them over to foreign buyers for a tiny fraction of their real worth.
The authorities felt obliged to intervene, expel all the foreign traders, and ban all mining in the area, until it can be brought under proper control.
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