Mines Bill submitted for Presidential assent

NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda has submitted the recently-passed Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill to President Emmerson Mnangagwa for assent, last Friday’s Government Gazette said.
The Bill, seeking to repeal the principal Act crafted in 1961, is part of government efforts to come up with a relevant and business friendly mining policy.
After years on the drawing board, the Bill was passed by both Houses just before the July 30 elections.
“In terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, it is hereby notified that on the 8th of August, 2018, the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill 2015 was transmitted to … the President … for his assent and signature,” Mudenda said in the gazette.
The Bill was first gazetted on August 12, 2016 before it was introduced in Parliament by former mines minister Walter Chidhakwa.
Public hearings into the Bill were held in September 2016 and the findings were presented to the House by Daniel Shumba, then chairperson of the Mines and Energy portfolio committee.
From 2016 to January 2018, the Bill was not enacted into law due to a number of contentious issues identified by the portfolio committee.
To address the sticky areas, in January 2018, the committee held further consultations, which culminated in the passing of the Bill by both Houses.
The Bill seeks to introduce a provision that allows the Mines minister, after consulting the president, to designate any mineral as strategic, if it would be in the mining industry’s interest.
It also seeks official recognition of small-scale miners, who produce more than 40 percent of the country’s gold.
The Bill also proposes a ban on all riverbed mining, except when a mining operation is a joint venture agreement with government.
Contentious issues during deliberations were the “strategic minerals” proposal, and a mooted Mining Affairs Board, which would be chaired by the Mines permanent secretary.
Earlier this year, the Zimbabwe Prospectors Association raised objections to the Bill, saying if passed, it will severely affect their operations.
The association was also concerned with the proposal to confer a lot of discretionary power to the Cadastral Registrar, who keeps details of land ownership, boundaries and value in a district for taxation pu