Artisanal and small-scale mining witnessed an unprecedented surge in the years 2008. Unfortunately, the 2001 mining code (including its 2010 amendment) and its implementing regulations did not provide enough guarantees to ensure transparency in the non-industrial mining sector. The surge in artisanal and small-scale mining activities appeared to have taken the legislator and government by surprise.
Despite the piecemeal pace in legal and policy development, the 2016 revision of the mining code consecrates a chapter on governance and transparency referring to the Kimberly Process and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative signifying a policy shift.
Effective and transparent governance in the mining sector requires transparent procedures throughout the value chain. Whilst the 2001 mining code concentrated the issue of artisanal and small-scale mining licenses in the hands of the mining authorities leading to fiscal, environmental and communal disagreements, the 2016 revision introduces an artisanal and small-scale mining supervision and promotion body whose organization and functioning shall be defined by an implementation decree. To enhance good governance and transparency in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector body, government should include mining, fiscal, environmental, traditional and local representatives. Its duties should start from the grant of licenses to the restoration of exploited sites. This will help curb the undesired disagreements that hitherto created unnecessary conflict in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector.
The new code takes concrete measures towards transparency by providing for the publication of instruments the grant, extension, renewal, transfer, farm-out, withdrawal or waiver of a mining permit in the Official Gazette and in journals of legal notices. The publication of mining permits eliminates malpractices in licensing, financial management, environmental control, relations with the host community etc.
It is interesting to note that the publication of these mining agreements is a step towards ensuring transparency and stamping out corruption in the mining sector. Considering the surge and importance of the non-industrial mining and semi-mechanized non-industrial mining across the country, the new mining code could score more points by making mandatory the publication of non-industrial mining and semi-mechanized non-industrial licenses and their specification documents. Adopting this approach in the awaited text of implementation will facilitate the quest for transparency and good governance in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector.
The public availability of contractual documents will go a long way to enhance the right to access mining information held by authorities. The right to access public information will help in achieving transparency, encouraging legal compliance, stamping out corruption and will generate financial and economic development. It is therefore important to take these points into consideration when conceiving the mining code’s texts of implementation.
