The ministry of Mining is currently working in collaboration with the
ministry of trade and industry in order to sort out problems which made the
production of coal which had stalled in Kiwira mine in southern highland
region. The deputy minister of Mining Stanslaus Nyongo said today in parliament
that, the aim of the government is to revive the production of coal which is
precious in industrial processing in the country. The Kiwira coal mine is a small coal mine
which is operational near the city of Mbeya with an annual installed capacity
of 150,000 tonnes. The Kiwira
Coal & Power Company owns the licence to mine at the Ivogo Ridge. The company is wholly owned by the State Mining Corporation that is 100 percent
owned by the government. The production of coal in the country has largely been
underdeveloped for many years. Tanzania has an estimated 1.5 billion tones of
reserves and is believed to have the largest reserves of coal in East Africa.
The
minister made a clarification in response to various questions which were
raised by different legislators in parliament who wanted to know the fate of a
number of natural resources which are not explored in some parts in the
country. The legislators from Ndanda constituency Cecil David
Mwambe (Chadema) raised a question with a view to know how the environmental impact
assessment is going on in his constituency about the granite gemstones. A
special seat legislator Fatma Hassan Toufiq (CCM) queried about 700 mining
slots at various mining sites in the country and wanted to know how the
government is handling the fate of small scale miners in those areas. In
response, the deputy minister said that, the report of environmental impact
assessment is not yet in place and once it will be out, the government is going
to permit mining activity to take place. On the issue of 700 mining slots, the
government is looking for the appropriate technology which it would give to
small scale miners into making them develop their skills.
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