OT, sort-of: Ominous sign in East Africa?
[ I recently saw somebody's prediction that ALL African mines will be expropriated, once they start making good money. That's really an opinion about African governments' "shakedown" mentality. I don't know how seriously to regard this. It's not a trend in West Africa. At present. I'm currently buying in West Africa, not selling. FL ]
Tanzania says may renegotiate mining laws
Fri Apr 7, 2006 7:05 PM GMT170
By Manoah Esipisu
PRETORIA (Reuters) -
"Tanzania will consider renegotiating mining laws to give a greater chunk of benefits to the country, President Jakaya Kikwete said on Friday.
Kikwete told a news conference in South Africa -- which he was visiting for trade talks -- that the government wanted Tanzania's economy to sustain a faster pace of growth, partly aided by the mining industry.
"Our concern would be that there be a win-win situation in mining. We are looking at the laws and if there are inadequacies, then we'd have to renegotiate the laws," he said.
He gave no further details. Growth in Tanzania's economy was expected to fall short of an official forecast of 6.9 percent in 2005 on spiralling fuel costs and investor caution.
Top gold miner AngloGold Ashanti, dominant diamonds company De Beers, both part-owned by diversified miner Anglo American Plc, as well as RandGold are some of the key players in Tanzania's mining industry.
"Tanzania's mining laws allow foreign companies to own virtually entire mines, with the government often holding less than five percent when the industry average for many African countries is 20 percent," a mining analyst in Johannesburg said.
In Tanzania, the only benefit to the country from the sector was in the number of jobs it created, while mining companies had made a fortune, he added.
"I do not think that mining companies would be averse to some kind of review of the laws. Of course the process will be difficult because the laws were negotiated and agreed to by the Tanzanians, they were not imposed," he said.
A senior Tanzanian official on Kikwete's delegation said a team of Tanzanian mining and legal experts were already examining the laws to determine what to renegotiate. He added that Kikwete had not set a deadline for any changes.
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