Emerald and Semi-Precious Stones Mining Association of Zambia observes the need to form an African continent body for Artisanal small scale miners dealing in precious metals and development minerals.

The association says that this will be a link between African governments and the artisanal small scale miners commonly referred to as illegal miners.

Association President Victor Kalesha tells Money FM News that this is an initiative that is already conceived and awaiting its birth after consultations and input from coordinated members from all African countries.

Mr. Kalesha explains that this was initially an initiative that came through the interactions after the Mosi -O- Tunya conference on Artisanal and small scale mining held in Livingstone, Zambia.

“We are appealing to cooperating partners to support this initiative so as to enable us help our brothers and sisters on the African continent from being labelled criminals in their own land and counties,” he said.

He says it is strange that some African Governments are proud in promoting operations of foreign corporations in mining other than empowering their own local people.

“Our investigations carried out in many other African countries, it is proved that the first people to explore minerals especially precious minerals are local people and it’s really unfortunate when Government’s do not empower them, to mine legally but instead chase them away like criminals.

He laments that when these local geologists explore and discover minerals, they are labelled as illegal miners and start chasing them paving way for foreign corporations to take over.

“It is not fair to label an indigenous local person who discovered the minerals as an illegal miner and bring in exploiters who we call investors,” he further laments.

Mr. Kalesha has also said the association is still studying the pronouncements in the 2019 national budget specifically the 15 percent export duty on precious metals that include emeralds, gold and other precious stones.