Review ban on mining, exploration licences

The blanket moratorium on the issuance of all exploration and mining licences is hurting the extractive sector and needs to end.

For years, the government has frozen issuing rights to companies to search for minerals and extract them, saying this was necessary to map out the country’s mineral resources and weed out speculators.

That is a prudent move but the ban cannot continue indefinitely.

As things stand, genuine companies in the mining sector are hamstrung by the lack of licences, with negative consequences for jobs, taxes and other related benefits like procurement from local suppliers.

The country’s most successful miner, Base Titanium, has decried the impact of the ban on its plans to extend its titanium extraction operation.

The company paid the government a total of Sh7.17 billion in royalties and taxes in the year ended June 2022. It also employs hundreds of locals at its Kwale operation.

To lump producers like Base Titanium with other miners in the ban is wrong. The government needs to deal with speculators separately.

We risk losing out to Tanzania and other countries with which we share some minerals.