Towards the Africa Mining Vision - Lesotho Launches New Legislative Framework for the Mining Sector

29 June 2015
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
press release

The Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho recently completed the development of an Africa Mining Vision (AMV)-compliant Minerals and Mining Policy with technical support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), through the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) and the UNECA Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa.

The new policy, developed in a fully transparent and consultative manner, will provide a strategic direction for the development of the country's mineral resources and will ensure that the sector contributes to socio-economic development and transformation.

In his keynote speech, Lesotho Minister for Mining Mr. Lebogang Thotanyana emphasized the importance of mining, "The mining sector has been identified by the National Strategic Development Plan as one of the key economic enablers. Currently, the sector contributes around 10 percent to the Gross Domestic Product of Lesotho. The sector employs directly and indirectly around 3,000 people and is set to grow as we commission new mining operations during the cause of this financial year. The sector is among the top contributors of revenue to the fiscas. This simply goes to show the importance of the sector to Lesotho."

However, many new directions in the policy are not adequately supported by the current legal and regulatory framework, and this prompted the government of Lesotho to request for support for the development of a legal and regulatory framework supportive of the new policy.

The development of an AMV-compliant legal and regulatory framework facilitates the full alignment of the policy with the aspirations of the AMV and will set the stage for the successful implementation of the new policy.

The launch ceremony and the high level government event was attended by 60 participants including representatives of key government ministries and companies relevant to the mining sector. Dr. Rose Mwebaza, Senior Policy and Regulatory Advisor represented AMDC.

The first consultative meeting for the new legislative framework for Lesotho will take place from 8 to 9 July in a high level event that will be presided over by the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Minister for Mines.

AMDC would officially hand over the stakeholder consultation report and the proposed mining bill to the Ministry of Mining by the end of August 2015--paving the way for the realization of the Africa Mining Vision in Lesotho.

Read the original article on UNECA.

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