By GIDEON NYENDWA
GOVERNMENT will follow up with Grizzly Mining Limited over the $10 million mining equipment offer to the smallscale emerald miners, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources Paul Kabuswe has said.
Mr. Kabuswe said he will engage Grizzly Mining to understand the intricacies of their offer so that they could understand what had been agreed upon between the small scale miners and the previous government. Grizzly Mining Limited committed to spend $10 million to procure mining equipment for small-scale emerald miners.
The giant mining firm was ready to procure the equipment on condition that the small-scale miners in Lufwanyama, numbering 600, form cooperatives and acquire a single mining licence. Mr. Kabuswe said he had not received any official information regarding the Grizzly Mining offer to procure min[1]ing equipment for the smallscale emeralds miners. “No information was filtered to me, I just heard about that from the press,” he said.
He said there was no proper handover of some of the projects started by the previous government that was why he had not yet picked up on the Grizzly offer. “When you come into government things are properly handed over to you so that you are able to decide which thing was good or bad,” he said. Mr. Kabuswe said the UPND government welcomes anything that would add value to the mining sector especially in the small-scale mining sector. “We are very interested in such offers,” he said. He also said that he had embarked on a countrywide tour to come to understand who is mining what and where.
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