Amendments To The Mining Act

Several provisions of the Mining Act, 2010 (the Mining Act) have either been amended or repealed by the Tanzania Extractive Industries (Transparency and Accountability) Act, 2015 (TEIA). Most of these amendments (the Amendments) do not dramatically depart from the provisions of the Mining Act, however they do introduce a number of changes which will affect mineral rights holders.

This month's mining briefing will summarise some of the key Amendments to the Mining Act concerning:

Initial capital investment for primary mining licence is now raised to USD 5 million Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency introduced in the Mining Act The Online Transactional Mining Flexicadastre Portal introduced in the Mining Act A penalty for undertaking unauthorised prospecting, mining and processing operations is now increased to Tshs. 10 million The equipment involved in unauthorised prospecting, mining and processing operations will now be auctioned by the Government The duration of the mining development agreement is now limited to ten years The Amendments have introduced the Tanzania Extractive Industries Transparency and Accountability Committee Upon renewal holders of prospecting licences of less than 40 square kilometers are not required to relinquish the licence area to less than 20 square kilometers The Amendments restrict applying for a mining or special mining licence over a prospecting licence issued to another person Holders of mining and special mining licence will now be required to commence mining activities within 18 months The Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) may process an application for conversion of a primary mining licence (PML) to a mining licence in excess of 30 days The decisions of the MEM Minister may be subject to judicial review at the High Court of Tanzania Dealer licence may now be issued with respect to building materials and a holder of a dealer licence is required to file monthly reports instead of quarterly reports The allowable distance for mining near a building or reservoir or dam owned by the Government is now raised to 200 metres Primary mining liscence

The Amendments have significantly increased the initial capital investment threshold for a PML from a maximum of USD 100,000 to maximum of USD 5 million.

The Mining Act previously provided that a PML means a small scale mining operations whose capital investment is less than USD 100,000. The Amendments provide that a PML means a licence for small scale mining characterized by minimal machinery or technology of an initial capital for investment which does not exceed USD 5 million. The Mining...