The government has ordered a review of royalties, levies and other charges imposed on small-scale miners following complaints that some miners may be paying more than once as the same minerals move from extraction to processing and sale.
Minister for Minerals Anthony Mavunde has directed the Mining Commission, regional authorities and representatives of small-scale miners to jointly examine the charging system and recommend changes that could prevent unnecessary costs while protecting government revenue.
The directive follows concerns raised by small-scale miners in Geita over how payments made when minerals are first extracted are treated when the same minerals are later transported, processed and sold.
The miners want the government to improve its system for tracking payments and mineral consignments, particularly in cases where ownership of the minerals has not changed.
They say the absence of a clear link between receipts issued at different stages can create uncertainty over whether a payment has already been made, potentially exposing miners to additional charges.
Mr Mavunde said the government had to strike a balance between protecting public revenue and ensuring that compliant miners were not subjected to unnecessary costs because of weaknesses in the collection and documentation system.
“We must collect all revenue legally due to the government, but we must also ensure that miners who comply with the law are not burdened with unnecessary costs because of weaknesses in documentation or tracking,” he said.
The issue centres on the difference between a new mineral transaction and the continued processing of minerals belonging to the same owner.
According to the Mining Commission, when a small-scale miner extracts minerals and sells them to another person, that sale completes one transaction.
If the buyer takes ownership, processes the minerals and later sells the resulting product, the subsequent transaction may carry its own legal obligations.
But miners told the government that the situation is different when ownership remains unchanged.
For example, a miner may extract ore from a licensed area, transport it to another facility for crushing or processing and later sell the recovered gold without selling the minerals to another owner during the process.
In such cases, miners want authorities to be able to trace the original receipt and establish what has already been paid before determining any further liability.
Mr Mavunde has therefore directed the Mining Commission to examine how every mineral consignment can be tracked from its source through transportation and processing to its final sale.
The proposed review will examine how receipts can be linked to specific consignments so that officials handling minerals at later stages can verify payments made earlier in the process.
The commission will also assess whether payments made at an earlier stage can be recognised when calculating subsequent obligations where it is established that they relate to the same minerals and the same statutory requirement.
No royalty or levy was abolished at the meeting.
Instead, Mr Mavunde ordered the stakeholders to first conduct a detailed assessment and submit recommendations based on existing laws, the realities facing small-scale miners and the need to safeguard public revenue.
The minister said the government remained committed to collecting all legally payable revenue but would consider administrative changes where the existing system creates unnecessary costs or duplication.
The review will also consider differences in mining operations across the country.
Small-scale miners work with deposits of varying mineral grades, meaning some may have to process large quantities of ore to recover relatively small amounts of gold or other valuable minerals.
Miners also raised concerns about transporting minerals from mining areas to processing facilities, especially where the necessary processing infrastructure is not available within their licensed areas.
Procedures for transporting carbon to elution plants were among the issues submitted to the government for consideration.
Mr Mavunde said the government would continue engaging directly with small-scale miners to identify problems arising from the implementation of mining laws and regulations.
He said such engagements were important because administrative reports alone might not capture the practical difficulties miners face in complying with the law.
The review comes as small-scale miners become an increasingly important contributor to Tanzania’s mineral economy.
Mr Mavunde said small-scale miners accounted for about 40 percent of revenue generated by the mining sector, which collected TZS1.393 trillion in the 2025/26 financial year.
In the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, the sector collected TZS411 billion against a target of TZS351 billion, reaching 117 percent of the target.
The government has also begun allocating 10 percent of mining sector collections to detailed mineral exploration as part of efforts to improve geological information and identify new opportunities for mining and investment.
For small-scale miners, however, the immediate concern is ensuring that compliance does not become unnecessarily expensive because of gaps in the system used to identify previous payments.
The joint team will review charging points, receipt issuance and recognition, mineral transportation, ownership changes and payment tracking across the mineral value chain before presenting its recommendations to the government.
Small-scale miners welcomed the move, saying a clearer payment-tracking system could reduce disputes, improve transparency and give miners greater certainty over their financial obligations.