GOLD: Marshal plan needed
By GIDEON NYENDWA
GOVERNMENT should come up with a marshal plan to ensure Gold mining benefits Zambians and contributes to the economic recovery of the country, former minister of Finance Ng’andu Magande has said.
Mr Magande said local people in the areas gold mining was being done must be allowed to own the mines or have shares in the mines.
He said government can give licenses to those who have the capacity to own mines and help them to acquire equipment that they can use to process gold.
“Our neighbour are doing it, ” he said.
Mr Magande said in this way the monies that were going to be raised can be ploughed back into the economy. He said gold mining is not too complicated like copper mining as there is no need of a lot of equipment.
Mr Magande Zambia needs to learn from neighbouring countries like South Africa that had developed from empowering the local people through participation in the mining that take place in their area.
He said gold mining was not done on a large scale in Zambia which makes it less sophisticated which could be run by local people.
Mr Magande said this country needs to reorganise the mining industry so that there is knowledge of how much is being mined for all the minerals in the country.
He said government should prioritise the local people in the areas in which the gold is being mined.
Mr Magande said the people in those areas must participate in the mining and the revenues that are being generated.
He also said it was an advantage that the Bank of Zambia ( BoZ) was buying the gold.
He said it could be better if BoZ can extend the buying to other precious stones like emeralds and others that were being mined in the country.
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