TZW
The Deputy Minister of Minerals, Mr Dotto Biteko, says plans were afoot to increase checkpoints in the country from the current 85 to 174. "The contribution of construction and industrial minerals ranks high in State books than any other minerals.
It is high time we reconsider how we can also better tap into this potential," he said. Last year, the mineral sub-sector produced at least 230.6bn/-, contributing 7.1bn/- as loyalty. Mr Biteko directed all regional mineral officers in charge of supervising mineral exploitation ensure that all required legal charges were paid.
Dodoma Region had in 2016/17 planned to collect some 1.20bn/-but surpassed the target by collecting about 1.44bn/-. In 2017/18, the office plans to collect 1.23bn/-;until February this year it had collected 66 percent of the targeted 812.4m/- Mr Silimu Mtingile, the regional minerals officer, says the office faced shortage of staff and its structure needed total renovation.
"We have only 11 employees, including an intern who works as a volunteer. We were using one of the buildings under the Geological Survey of Tanzania and shortly after the Ministry relocated to Dodoma, we moved to a ministry building outside the town that needs rehabilitation," he told the deputy minister.
The construction minerals sector is the largest among the non-energy extractive industries, having the highest tonnage of extracted minerals, the highest number of companies and employees and the largest turnover.
They include aggregates (sand, gravel, and crushed natural stone), various brick clays, gypsum, and natural ornamental or dimension stone. The demand for construction minerals is generally high. The sector mainly consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating at extraction sites that supply local and regional markets.