Kitwanga meets a challenge

In unpresented move, the deputy Minister for Energy and Minerals Charles Kitwanga on Wednesday last week met a serious challenge in Singida after one farmer demanded from him a mining license issued by the government to small scale miners. A farmer who demanded for the license to enable him explore gypsum in his farm land did not know that the same license is already issued to an investor in the area. The incident that caused a different perception among mining experts and government leaders from the central zone occurred at Itigi in Manyoni district at a procession of the deputy minister who was in a second day of his tour in Singida region. Before a fracas started, a farmer known by the name Japhet Kibiriti asked the deputy minister various steps should he take in order to get a license for mining, whereby he was duly informed by other people that it was already issued top an investor. Japhet was not please by the answer he was given, and he immediately  asked the deputy minister to intervene on the matter as he is the right person to undertake t5he mining activities in the area as he is also able to finance the costs for acquiring a license and the minerals which have been found on his farmland. After an in-depth elaboration about the matter, Japhet exclaimed and stick to his stand while explaining to the deputy minister that he is not satisfied with the decisions and instead should be given a license to trade. “I say this piece of land on which I am cultivating was surveyed by then mining experts from the district since 1990 and now how comes that should I be denied this right? And moreover I am not yet paid even a single sent, he queried. “Now I am no longer interested in compensation, I want to be given this land and a mining license as this is my land and why should another person be given a license? He queried. Either others some small scale miners in the district who identified themselves as Yusufu Sadiq and Abdalah Ngozi from GBES Company Limited which h engage in mining activities for the gypsum explained some of the challenges facing them in their day top day activities. They mentioned some of these challenges and noted that late payments from their customers, some cement companies in the country for the last one year now, and another challenge ids lack of laboratory which is not in place for the last one year now. Gympsum minerals are used for the manufacturing of the various products including a cement, chalks for writing on black walls, limestone and gypsum board for ceiling roof construction Singida region has a total of 10,838 blocks of different gemstones which includes gold, copper. But up to now about 3,388 have been acquired, and this is equivalent to 31.3 percent of all the available blocks