Buying mining licence

Our company is a large mining company. We are negotiating with a primary mining licence owner to purchase his mining licence. How long will it take to transfer the licence?
21 May 2012

Unfortunately, the Mining Act 2010 does not allow you, as a foreign company, to purchase the Primary Mining Licence (PML). The law is clear: a PML for any minerals shall not be granted to an individual, partnership or body corporate unless (a) in the case of an individual, the individual is a citizen of Tanzania; (b) in the case of a partnership, it is composed exclusively of citizens of Tanzania; (c) in the case of a body corporate, it is a company and (i) its membership is composed exclusively of citizens of Tanzania; (ii) its directors are all citizens of Tanzania; (iii) control over the company, both direct and indirect, is exercised, from within Tanzania by persons all of whom are citizens of Tanzania.

This requirement may sound restrictive to some. However, it is intended to ensure that the local population to benefit from mining, so is not so strange. Other countries also have similar policies to promote local mining.

The best way to purchase the PML is to have it converted to a Mining Licence (ML), which can subsequently be transferred to your company. The conversion from a PML to a ML will require amongst others, an assessment of technical and financial capacity to be conducted, together with a feasibility and environment impact assessment.