Heads could roll at the Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency (TMAA)
after President John Magufuli ordered an investigation of its officials
and those at the Mining Ministry over suspected fraud.
A report by the Presidential Probe Committee that assessed 277
containers from Acacia Mining, a subsidiary of Barrick Gold, detained at
the Dar es Salaam port last week showed that the concentrates contained
1,400 grammes of minerals per tonne, seven times the value declared on
the export documents.
The committee chaired by Abdulkadir Mruma said unnamed TMAA
officials were compromised six years ago to weaken the business case for
Tanzania building local smelters for its mineral sands.
The Presidential Mining Review Commission led by Judge Mark
Bomani had in 2009 justified the putting up of a local smelter. TMAA had
recommended against building a mineral smelter.
President Magufuli sacked Minister for Energy and Minerals Prof
Sospeter Muhongo and suspended the chief executive of TMAA, Dominick
Rwekaza, then ordered that the agency be investigated for causing the
country millions of dollars in losses.
TMAA officials visited the Tokyo and Saganoseki copper
concentrate smelters in Japan in 2011 to familiarise themselves with the
technology involved in processing copper concentrate and how it could
be applied in Tanzania. The tour was also aimed at understanding the
investment cost involved in the construction of such smelters, their
capacities and major operating expenses according to a TMAA report.
Now, the TMAA officials who went to Japan are being accused of
having been compromised to come up with the report. The Bomani
Commission, which drew up Tanzania’s mining policy, had also toured
Japan when it was collecting and preparing data for the enactment of a
new mining law.
In the 2011 report by TMAA titled “A Study on Viability to
Constructing a Copper Concentrate Smelter in Tanzania,” the agency
advised against investing in the smelting and refining industries.
In March, President Magufuli ordered the impounding of 277
containers of mineral concentrates, pending verification of minerals
they contained.
The committee reported the presence of minerals such as silver
ratios, while no royalty was paid for other compounds like iron,
sulphur, rhodium, iridium and lithium despite their being extracted from
the concentrate by the final buyer.
Stay on the ban
The presidential committee said Acacia had not fully declared
minerals contained in the concentrate, and recommended that the ban on
export of metallic mineral concentrates be maintained until the issue
was resolved.
The company at the centre of the controversy has reacted saying that it is clean and abides by all laid down laws.
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