Online Mining Cadaster Transactional Portal Starts Issuing Mining Licenses In Tanzania

The Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) has recently announced that the new Online Mining Cadaster Transactional Portal (OMCTP), an electronic platform for mining sector’s stakeholders, has so far registered approximately 8,800 new licenses of minerals since it started to be used in December, 2015.

The licenses has been awarded to 370 different active companies with 5,919 licenses for explorations of minerals, 111 for mineral extraction and 2,595 for small-scale mining.

In addition to the licenses awarded, there are currently 117 applications for exploration, 9 for extraction and 557 for small-scale mining from 458 companies that are awaiting verification in the OMCTP, explained MEM’s Assistant Commissioner for Minerals, Mr. John Nayopa.

Companies have counted with the assistance of the MEM to learn how to effectively use the OMCTP and make safety payments of licenses’ fees by using mobile banking, Maxmalipo, electronic banking cards, or Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), Mr. Nayopa added.

According to the MEM, companies that want to use the OMCTP has to firstly register in person at the MEM Head Office in Dar es Salaam for licenses under the divisions A or B that comprise Prospecting Licensing (PL), Retention License (RL), Special Mining License (SML), and Mining License (ML).

For Primary Mining License (PML) under the division C and licenses for processing and smelting or refining minerals, it is enough with registering at the Zonal or Resident Mines Offices spread in the country.

Tanzania had registered a total of 3,500 licenses in the current year until the OMCTP was officially launched in June, 2015.

The OMCTP follows the Mining Cadastral Information Management System (MCIMS), which was launched in 2007 and was enabled to only support the analysis of licensing applications.