Renewal of mining licences to undergo overhaul

New regulations will soon be put in place to ensure registration and renewal of licences in the mining sector is only done by those with tax clearance and environmental impact assessment certification.

Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando revealed this at a meeting with the Masvingo Provincial Taskforce last Sunday. He said Government came up with the new system after noticing that many miners had been evading paying tax and some had backlogs that had accumulated and disadvantaged revenue collection.

On the other hand, some miners were disregarding environmental impact of their operations whereby they left without covering up areas they had degraded.

The situation had not been sustainable with regards to guiding mining activities from destroying the environment.

Minister Chitando said the new regulations would be operationalised in a few months.

It is expected that the move will bring sanity in the mining industry and promote methods that are environmental friendly.

Mining activities in some areas have had a negative impact on humans and flora and fauna after destroying the environment.-herald.clz.w