The land factor in mining gold reserves in Tanzania.

After three decades (following independence) of being overwhelmed by command-economy policies, in the 1980s Tanzania’s gold mining industry benefited from policy reforms that started with the economic recovery programmes (ERP). These reforms freed in part the major means of production from state ownership. The accompanying paradigm shift allowed ASMs to register claims and retain much-needed foreign currency for rural development long before mining companies started operations. The reforms also translated into rises in gold production, which reached a level of over one million ounces (oz) per year in the new millennium.2 Tanzania has re-entered large-scale gold mining with a bang, with six gold mines opening up since 1998. Production is high and rising, and today the country is the third-largest gold producer on the continent after South Africa and Ghana. In 1995 the adoption of the National Land Policy was followed in 1999 by enactment of the Land Act and Village Land Act. These acts came only a year after a new Minerals Policy and the Mining Act came into force, and all took on board the essentials of the ERP. However, the two frameworks remained separate and contradictory, to the detriment of the relationship between stakeholders.