What is Mineral Export Permit?
Mineral Export Permit is a permit issued by the government to a person or company that intends to export minerals, or mineral product from Tanzania. The applicant for Mineral Export Permit should provide full details of the source of mineral(s), quality and quantity to be exported, the estimated value of the export, full address of Importer and mode of shipment.
Mineral Exportation in Tanzania is governed by the Mining Act, 2010, the Mining (Mineral Trading) Regulations, 2010. The buyer, dealer, broker or miner who wishes to export minerals or mineral samples from Tanzania must comply with the provisions of the above laws, and obtain export permit after paying relevant taxes and royalty.
The export Permit is issued only upon application and after the qualified applicant has paid all government fees. The Permit is issued to export a specified Mineral consignment and expires once that consignment has left Tanzania, hence there is no such Permanent Mineral Export License.
Who can apply for export permit in Tanzania?
- Holder of Mining Rights
Any person who fall in any of the following categories may apply for and be granted export permit;
- Primary Mining license
- Mining License
- Special Mining License
- Smelting License
- Processing License, and
- Refining License
The holder of any of the above mining License, has the right to trade or dispose even export the mineral and mineral Products obtained from their mining centers
2. Licensed Mineral Dealers
The holder of Dealer License has the right to acquire or buy minerals from Licensed miner or licensed Broker, also, sell or dispose Mineral or Mineral Products. Hence the holder of Dealer License can be granted the export permit upon application.
3. Non-resident with special export permit
A non-resident who wishes to export minerals acquired by him from authorized miner, licensed dealer, or from Gem Trade Fair, shall apply for the export permit after payment of all government fees. The Non-resident upon application shall be granted a special export permit to export minerals from Tanzania.
A non-resident with a Tourist Visa is permitted, to export minerals (not more than twice a year) after paying the required export permit fee of US$ 200 for minerals with value not exceeding US$ 1,000.
However, a much higher export permit fee of US$ 2000 is charged in case the value of minerals to be exported by non-resident exceeds the value of US$ 1,000.
What is required to Export Mineral from Tanzania?
As indicated above, in order for any person to export mineral from Tanzania shall be granted export permit, however the permit is granted upon application and after payment of all the required government fees.
The government fees include the following;
- Royalty
- Export Permit Application fee
Royalty for Export Mineral
In Tanzania, the minerals are owned by the United Republic of Tanzania and is vested on President in trust for the People in Tanzania. Hence, Royalty is the amount of payment usually in Percentage, made to the Government by authorized miner, licensed dealer or exporter of minerals in Tanzania.
The government charges royalty for export mineral basing on two factors, which are the type of mineral to be exported and the gross value of the mineral to be exported.
Currently, the Government charges royalty to export mineral at the following rates;
- Gemstone and Diamond, is charged at 6% of the gross value of the consignment to be exported.
- metallic minerals such as copper, gold, silver, and platinum group minerals, is charged at 6% of the gross value of the consignment to be exported.
- Gem, is charged at 1% of the gross value of the consignment to be exported; and
- other minerals, including building materials, salt, all minerals within the industrial minerals group, is charged at 3% of the gross value of the consignment to be exported.
Export Permit Application fee.
The one who is responsible to apply for export permit, is the licensed dealer or the licensed miner, the application is made by filling the special form upon which the applicant will have to pay US$ 100 as the application fee for export permit application.
Further information;
Mineral Export permit is the vital document that will allow the dealers and miners to export the Minerals out of Tanzania, without which they cannot export the minerals. However, it is better to note that, mineral export permit is issued only once per each consignment, and valid only for the period given, so there is no permanent export permit.
The mineral export permit will not be issued if the applicant has not paid for the export permit application fee and the Government royalty. These are the fee paid to the government before the consignment is to be exported.
Currently, there has been a high number of sellers who claim to be involved in mineral activities and fraudulently mislead most buyers especially foreigners, who end up losing their money. We would like to advise the buyers who intends to do business with any Company in Tanzania that deals in minerals business, to conduct due diligence on the company’s legitimacy in Mineral Trading. As it is important to verify, whether the seller has a valid Dealer’s License or Miner’s License, before doing any transactions with them. This will reduce the possibility of concluding a transaction with people or companies which don’t have valid license to deal with minerals, hence end up losing money.
At Eden Law Chambers, We provide legal advice and assist clients on conducting due diligence on any company registered and doing business in Tanzania, regarding their operations in mineral transactions.
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