MONDAY November 11, 2024
By Deus Bugaywa
The Tranquility News Correspondent, Tanzania
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) held a technical taskforce meeting on August 20 – 22, 2008, to draft a new Africa Mining Vision ahead of the first African Union Conference of ministers for mineral resources development.
The taskforce jointly established by the African Union (AU) and ECA comprised representatives from the African Mining Partnership (an intergovernmental forum of African ministers for mining), the African Development Bank (AfDB), UNCTAD, and UNIDO.
Heads of State of the AU Summit adopted the Africa Mining Vision in February 2009, following the October 2008 meeting of African ministers for mineral resources development.
The African Mining Vision represents Africa’s own response to addressing the paradox of significant mineral wealth along with rampant poverty.
The African Mining Vision is a holistic approach that advocates for thinking beyond traditional mining practices.
The vision does not only emphasize on optimizing tax revenues from mining and prudently spending them, but also on integrating mining into broader development policies at local, national, and regional levels.
This means considering ways mining activities can better contribute to local development by ensuring workers and surrounding communities substantially benefit from large-scale industrial mining and their environment is protected.
It also entails ensuring nations negotiating contracts with mining multinational corporations that generate fair resource rents and include local inputs in their operations.
At the regional level, this means integrating mining into industrial and trade policies. Ultimately, the goal is to transition from Africa’s historical role as an exporter of cheap raw materials to becoming a manufacturer and provider of knowledge-based services.
The African Mining Vision is fundamentally a developmental mining approach that emphasizes the path towards growth involving the building of economic and social linkages that benefit Africa itself.
In its attempt to live up to the African Mining Vision, a subsidiary of Barrick at North Mara Gold Mine is nurturing businesses belonging to members of the surrounding communities for their services and products to meet international standards as quality control procedures in mining operations require.
The mine had, in the first place, to identify challenges local entrepreneurs were facing in providing services and produce, and accessing capital, markets, and technology to meet the quality control demands.
In recognition of challenges local businesses were facing, North Mara Gold Mine launched a Business Development Programme in 2021 to empower them to engage in competitive business within and outside the mine and to enhance their capacity to create jobs through skills development.
Shortly after the specialised training, the efforts bore fruit, as the mine registered 118 companies to work with it.
Through contracts for provision of various services and supplies the mine assigned local firms, the nearby community direct and indirectly started seeing benefits from the mine’s presence.
In 2023, the mine provided business opportunities to local businesses from the surrounding community worth $37.4 million (approximately TSh95.3 billion), a considerable amount for a single year.
Developing local businesses is a unique programme in the extractive industry, says Barrick’s president and CEO Mark Bristow, calling on other mining companies to consider adopting similar models.
“We take pride in leading the way with this successful local business development programme, fulfilling our responsibilities beyond existing legal mandates.
“Local content is crucial to our operations, and as we strengthen small and medium enterprises, we also empower the communities around us.
“Barrick will continue supporting the development of small and medium enterprises, which are vital for economic growth,” he said.
This programme has witnessed success in developing strategic plans for participating companies, enhancing cash flow, and connecting various business opportunities.
Despite some challenges, including few locals encroaching on the mine, damaging infrastructure, and stealing gold ore, the mine employs 560 local guards from 11 villages surrounding the area as part of further outreach to the surrounding community.
The villages are Kewanja, Matongo, Nyangoto, Nyakunguru, Nyabichune, Komarera, Mjini Kati, Msege, Karende, Nyamwaga, and Genkuru.
The mine compensates the guards as stipulated in a reconciliation agreement with these villages and pays them $82,592.6 (TSh223 million) in monthly salaries, besides various contributions to these communities.
Furthermore, Barrick, the parent company of the North Mara Gold Mine, which, in addition, owns Bulyanhulu Gold Mine also in Tanzania, ensures most of its employees, if not all, are Tanzanians.
Local content is crucial to our operations, and as we strengthen small and medium enterprises, we also empower the communities around us,” president and Chief Executive of Barrick Mark Bristow.
Among its 5,944 employees and contractors, 5,697, equivalent to 96 per cent, are Tanzanian, while 247, equivalent to 4 per cent, are foreigners.
Additionally, 59 per cent of the Tanzanian workforce hail from communities surrounding the mines. Tanzanians are also at the helm of the management of both mines, with women constituting 11 per cent of the total workforce.
The Africa Mining Vision is informed by the outcomes of various initiatives and efforts made at sub-regional, continental, and global levels to formulate policies and regulatory frameworks aimed at maximising developmental outcomes of mineral resource exploitation.
These include the Johannesburg Political Declaration and Plan of Implementation of Chapter 62 of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Yaoundé Vision on Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, and the Africa Mining Partnership’s Sustainable Development Charter and Mining Policy Framework.
Others are the SADC Framework and Implementation Plan for Harmonisation of Mining Policies, Standards, Legislative and Regulatory Frameworks; UEMOA’s Common Mining Policy and “Code Miniere Communautaire”; and the Summary Report of the 2007 Big Table on “Managing Africa’s Natural Resources for Growth and Poverty Reduction”, jointly organised by ECA and AfDB, along with the work of the International Study Group to Review Africa’s Mining RegimesΩ
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The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
