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Mines & Minerals Amendment Bill (H.B. 14, 2007)
Published in the Government Gazette: Friday November 16 , 2007

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MINES AND MINERALS AMENDMENT BILL, 2007

MEMORANDUM

This Bill will amend the Mines and Minerals Act [Chapter 21:05] in order to achieve the following main objects:

(a) to change the composition of the Mining Affairs Board and to clarify and extend its functions;

(b) to regulate the activities of prospectors more closely, and to confine their activities to specific areas defined by grids;

(c) to remove the distinction between precious metal and base metal claims, and to abolish the extra-lateral rights which holders of precious metal claims enjoy at present;

(d) to alter the current system whereby exclusive prospecting orders are issued by the President, and substituting a system of licences issued by the Minister of Mines;

(e) to provide for mining title to be granted in the form of a mining lease, where the title extends over four or more contiguous blocks;

(f) to require holders of mining rights to work their claims rather than allowing them to preserve their title by paying annual fees;

(g) to require miners to establish funds or to make other provision to meet the cost of restoring the environment when their mining operations come to an end;

(h) to convert certain special grants into mining leases;

(i) to remove much of the excessive particularity from the Act (for example, the detailed provisions setting out the way in which claims must be pegged) and leaving such matters to be prescribed in regulations;

(j) to make provision for the indigenisation and localisation of the mining industry;

(k) generally, to make the procedures under the Act more transparent and to allow aggrieved persons a right of appeal to the Administrative Court against decisions which affect their rights;

In more detail, the individual clauses of the Bill contain the following provisions:

Clause 1
This clause sets out the short title of the Bill and will empower the President to fix a date for it to come into operation, thereby allowing time for the necessary regulations to be prepared before the Bill comes into force.

Clause 2
This clause will amend or delete definitions contained in section 5 of the Mines and Minerals Act and will insert some new ones. The amendments are consequential on the amendments made by later clauses of the Bill. Of particular note in connection with consequential amendments arising from the recent land reform programme is the insertion of the definitions of “Gazetted land” and “land resettlement lease”. The purpose of these definitions is to facilitate the extension of the same protections that were previously afforded to owners of private property to holders of the 99-year leases recently issued to new farmers.

Clause 3
This clause will alter the composition of the Mining Affairs Board. At present the Board consists of the Permanent Secretary for Mines and four other officials in the Ministry, together with six members appointed by the Minister to represent miners and farmers. Under the new provision, the Board will consist of the Secretary and five other named Ministry officials, plus nine further members at least seven of whom will be appointed by the Minister to represent miners, farmers and rural district councils.

Clause 4
This clause will repeal subsections (4) and (5) of section 8 of the Mines and Minerals Act, which are inconsistent with section 7(1)(a) of the Act.

Clause 5
At present there is no provision in the Mines and Minerals Act regulating the frequency of meetings of the Mining Affairs Board. This clause will require the Board to meet at least once every two months (which is what it does in practice) and will fix its quorum at half its membership (at present the quorum is seven out of its 11 members).

Clause 6
Under the new section 10A which this clause will insert in the Mines and Minerals Act, the Mining Affairs Board will be allowed to appoint committees, with the Minister’s approval, and to delegate some of its functions to those committees.

Under the new section 10B the Board will be staffed by public servants assigned to the Board by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry.

Clause 7
This clause will give the Mining Affairs Board a general power to extend periods within which applications are to be made or documents are to be submitted to the Board, and will allow the Board to refer questions of law to the High Court for decision.

Clause 8
Part III of the Mines and Minerals Act requires the Secretary for Mines to keep a register of approved prospectors ? that is, a register of persons who are permitted to prospect for minerals. This clause will replace the Part with a new one which will change the term “approved prospector” to “approved staking agent” and will leave matters such as the qualifications for registration, the issue of registration certificates and so on to be prescribed in regulations. Regulations dealing with those matters will have to give a right of appeal to persons who have been refused registration.

Clauses 9 and 10
At present, prospecting licences are issued under section 20 of the Mines and Minerals Act and entitle the licensees, acting through approved prospectors, to prospect for minerals anywhere in Zimbabwe on land that is open to prospecting. These clauses will introduce a new system under which the licences will be called “exclusive prospecting licences” and will restrict each licensee to prospecting within a single square-kilometre grid as shown on maps produced by the Minister (it is envisaged that the grids will be the same as those used for mapping purposes by the Surveyor-General). Each licensee will have exclusive prospecting rights within his or her grid.
Under the new section 21, an application for an exclusive prospecting licence will have to be accompanied by a prospectus and report required for the purposes of the Environmental Management Act [Chapter 20:27], and anyone aggrieved by a refusal of a licence will have a right of appeal first to the Minister and then to the Administrative Court. Under the new section 23 the Minister will have power to cancel a licence and, once again, an aggrieved licensee will be entitled to appeal to the Administrative Court.

The rights conferred by an exclusive prospecting licence are set out in the new section 27, to be inserted in the Act by clause 10. A licensee will have an exclusive right to prospect for all minerals within his or her grid and to peg up to 100 claims, but these rights will be exercisable only by approved staking agents. A licensee will not be allowed to remove minerals from the land on which they are found, except for the purposes of assay.

Clause 11
Sections 39 to 45 of the Mines and Minerals Act prescribe in great detail how claims and blocks are to be pegged and registered. This clause will replace those sections with three new ones which will allow the details to be prescribed in regulations.

Clause 12
Sections 47 to 49 of the Mines and Minerals Act allow miners to peg and use areas adjacent to their mining locations for the purposes of erecting living quarters for their employees, operating mills, placing waste materials, and so on. This clause will replace those sections with a single one which will leave most of the detailed provisions to be prescribed in regulations; the new section will also give a right of appeal to the Administrative Court to miners aggrieved by a mining commissioner’s refusal to register a site and to landowners aggrieved by the pegging of a site.

Clause 13
Section 50 of the Mines and Minerals Act empowers a mining commissioner to cancel the registration of sites or blocks of claims, giving aggrieved persons a right of appeal to the Minister. This clause will allow a commissioner to cancel registration certificates by consent (this is not provided for at present) and will give aggrieved persons a further right of appeal to the Administrative Court.

Clauses 14 and 15
These clauses will repeal sections 51, 55 and 56 of the Mines and Minerals Act, which deal with the beaconing of mining locations and the determination of the number of claims in a block ? the determination in the latter case depending on whether the claims are precious metal or base metal claims. This clause will repeal those sections, leaving such matters to be prescribed in regulations

Clause 16
Part VI of the Mines and Minerals Act deals with exclusive prospecting orders, which authorise persons to prospect for minerals over wide areas of Zimbabwe. This clause will replace Part VI with a new one which will alter the term “exclusive prospecting area” to “exclusive exploration licence”. By and large the new Part will follow the provisions of the existing one, omitting the detailed provisions (which will be dealt with in regulations), but will make the following changes:

• Applicants for an exclusive exploration licence will have to be told of any objections lodged against the applications, so that they can answer them (see the new section 87(4)).
• The Mining Affairs Board will be able to recommend the issue of a licence without having to hold a hearing if no objections have been lodged (section 88 (proviso)).
• Before a licence is issued, the applicant will have to give the Board a copy of the environmental impact assessment report which is required in terms of the Environmental Management Act.
• The Minister, not the President, will issue licences. The Minister will be obliged to follow the Board’s recommendations regarding the issue of a licence unless he considers it is not in the national interest to do so.
• An applicant will have a right of appeal to the Administrative Court against the Board’s refusal to recommend the issue of a licence; no such appeal is allowed at present (section 89(3)). Similarly, if the Minister declines to follow the Board’s recommendation to issue a licence the aggrieved applicant will have a right of appeal (section 90(2)).
• Parliament will have power, by resolution, to compel the Minister to revoke a licence (section 92(3)). At present, though exclusive prospecting orders have to be laid before Parliament, Parliament has no power to disapprove them.
• The Board, rather than the Minister, will have power to decide whether or not to revoke an exclusive exploration licence, and persons aggrieved by the revocation of a licence will have a right of appeal to the Administrative Court (see the new section 110).

Clause 17
Section 123 of the Mines and Minerals Act empowers the Mining Affairs Board to permit miners to peg and register underground extensions contiguous to their mining locations. If the Board refuses to permit a miner to do so, the miner can appeal to the Minister. This clause will give a further right of appeal to the Administrative Court against the Minister’s decision.

Clause 18
Part VIII of the Mines and Minerals Act deals with mining leases, under which lessees may conduct mining operations within large areas. This clause will replace Part VIII with a new one which, to a great extent, follows the provisions of the existing one, but with the following changes:

• The Mining Affairs Board, rather than the Minister, will have power to issue and cancel mining leases. Under the existing provisions, curiously, the Board issues leases but the Minister cancels them.
• Anyone who wishes to mine on reserved ground will have to obtain a mining lease to do so. At present, such a person would apply for a special grant under Part XIX of the Act. See the new section 136(2).
• Anyone seeking the registration of four or more contiguous blocks of claims will be obliged to apply for a mining lease in respect of them (see the new section 136(3)).
• The grounds on which the Board may refuse a mining lease are set out in the new section 140(2) in more detail than in the equivalent provision in the existing Part.
• Persons aggrieved by the issue or refusal of a mining lease, or by the amendment or revocation of a lease, will have a right of appeal to the Administrative Court. See the new section 154.
• Lessees will have to submit annual programmes to the Board showing the work that will be completed during the next twelve months: see the new section 148.
• Details of such matters as the information that must be provided by an applicant for a mining lease are not specified in the new Part but will be left to regulations.

Clauses 19 and 20
Clause 19 will repeal sections 169 to 171 of the Mines and Minerals Act, which deal with the mining rights of holders of precious metal reef claims and give them extra-lateral rights (i.e., the right to follow an ore reef underground beyond the vertical boundaries of a claim). The rights of such holders will be the same as those of other miners, as set out in section 172 of the Act. Clause 20 will make appropriate amendments to section 172 so that it applies to all miners.

Clauses 21 and 22
The subsections of section 173 of the Mines and Minerals Act which will be repealed by clause 21 deal with the conversion of precious metal claims, and once the distinction between base metal claims and precious metal claims is abolished. For the same reason section 174, which applies only to the conversion of precious metal claims, will be repealed by clause 22.

Clause 23
Section 175 of the Mines and Minerals Act empowers a mining commissioner to change the mineral in respect of which a block of base mineral claims was registered. This clause will amend the section so that it covers precious metal claims as well as base mineral claims.

Clauses 24 and 25
Sections 193 and 194 of the Mines and Minerals Act deal respectively with miners’ rights to private and public water. The Water Act [Chapter 20:24] no longer distinguishes between private and public water, so these clauses will amend the sections accordingly.

Clauses 26 and 33
Section 203 of the Mines and Minerals Act defines the term “work” for the purposes of Part XI of the Act. The effect of these clauses is to move section 203 to the beginning of Part XI, where it is more appropriately placed, and to insert additional definitions in it.

Clauses 27 to 30
The effect of these clauses is to allow the particulars to be included in an application for an inspection certificate to be prescribed in regulations. The clauses will also require applicants to provide environmental impact assessment reports, and to up-date them at prescribed intervals.

Clause 29 will in addition repeal subsections (6) to (8) of section 199 of the Mines and Minerals Act, which give aggrieved persons a right of appeal to the Minister against a decision by the Mining Affairs Board to declare a mining location to be forfeited. A general right of appeal against such decisions is granted by the new section 221C which will be inserted in the Act by clause 40.

Clause 31
Section 201 of the Mines and Minerals Act allows a mining commissioner to inspect a miner’s development work before issuing an inspection certificate to the miner. This clause will give the commissioner power to inspect any work, not just development work.

Clause 32
The amendments which this clause will make to section 202 of the Mines and Minerals Act are consequential on amendments effected by other clauses to Part XI of the Act.

Clause 33
This clause has been dealt with above in conjunction with clause 26.

Clause 34
Section 205 of the Mines and Minerals Act, which prescribes the amount of work needed to obtain an inspection certificate, distinguishes between precious metal and base mineral claims. That distinction is being abolished, hence the new section 205 which this clause will insert in the Act.

Clause 35
This clause will repeal subsection (1) of section 211 of the Mines and Minerals Act, since it has been incorporated into the definition of “work” in the new section 196A, inserted into the Act by clause 26.

The effect of paragraph (b) of the clause will be to give a right of appeal to the Administrative Court against a decision of the Mining Affairs Board as to whether any particular expenditure incurred by a miner can be counted as “capital expenditure” for the purpose of obtaining an inspection certificate.

Clause 36
Section 212 of the Mines and Minerals Act allows inspection certificates to be obtained (and hence mining rights to be preserved) through the payment of fees rather than through development work or production. This clause will repeal the section.

Clause 37
This clause will clarify the meaning of proviso (i) to section 214(2) of the Mines and Minerals Act.

Clause 38
Section 217 of the Mines and Minerals Act is to be repealed because it will be re-enacted with modifications as section 221B (see clause 40). Sections 218 and 219 deal with the amount of work required for the preservation of precious stones blocks, alluvial, and other specific types of claims. These claims are to be treated in the same way as other sorts of claims, so the two sections will be repealed.

Clause 39
The amendments to section 221 of the Mines and Minerals Act that will be effected by this clause are consequential on the abolition of the distinction between precious metal and base metal claims.

Clause 40
This clause will insert three new sections into Part XI of the Mines and Minerals Act, which deals with the preservation of mining rights through work and development.

The new section 221A will require a mining commissioner to report to the Mining Affairs Board any failure on the part of the holder of a mining lease to obtain an inspection certificate within the prescribed time. The new section is based on the present section 263(1) and (2) of the Act.

The new section 221B will re-enact section 217 of the Act, defining more clearly the circumstances in which the Minister may issue protection certificates.

The new section 221C will give a general right of appeal against decisions under Part XI; ultimately, aggrieved persons will be able to appeal to the Administrative Court and from there to the Supreme Court.

Clause 41
This amendment to section 232 of the Mines and Minerals Act (on special payments to owners and occupiers of land on which work any alluvial or eluvial deposits are being worked) will, in addition to owners of private land, also permit holders of the 99-year leases recently issued to new farmers under the land reform programme to benefit from the payment of the special levies imposed on miners who work such deposits.

Clause 42
This clause will insert a new Part into the Mines and Minerals Act, dealing with environmental protection. Under the new section 257B, large-scale miners (i.e. miners whose output exceeds a prescribed amount) will be required to establish environmental rehabilitation funds to finance any work needed to restore the environment when they cease mining operations. Miners who have more than one mining location will be allowed to establish a single fund to cover all their locations. Environmental rehabilitation funds will be vested in independent trustees and will be constituted under trust deeds that will require the approval of the Mining Affairs Board: see the new sections 257C and 257D. The funds will have to be audited annually (section 257E) and kept under regular review by the Board (section 257F). It will be possible for two or more miners to combine to establish a single fund, or to contribute towards a fund established by a financial institution or a body such as the Chamber of Mines. See section 257G. Small-scale miners will have the option of establishing their own environmental rehabilitation funds or of contributing towards a fund established by a financial institution or a trade body; if they do not exercise that option, they will have to pay contributions to the Environment Fund established by the Environmental Management Act. See the new section 257H. As an alternative to establishing an environmental rehabilitation fund or contributing towards such a fund, the Board will be allowed by the new section 257I to accept a guarantee from a mining company that it will complete the necessary environmental protection work. Such a guarantee will be subject to regular review by the Board in the same way as a fund. Miners who establish or contribute towards environmental rehabilitation funds, or who pay contributions to the Environment Fund, will be exempted to a prescribed extent from paying the full amount of the levies under the Environmental Management Act in respect of their mining operations: see the new section 257J. Compliance with these new provisions will not absolve miners from their legal obligations to minimise environmental damage (section 257K), and the Minister will have power to make regulations requiring miners to take out insurance against any accidental damage they may cause (section 257L).

Clause 43
The repeal of section 262 of the Mines and Minerals Act is consequential on the repeal of section 218 of the Act by clause 38.

Clause 44
The new section 263 which this clause will insert in the Mines and Minerals Act is a simplified version of the existing section.

Clauses 45 and 46
Clause 44 will repeal subsections (3), (4) and (5) of section 265 of the Mines and Minerals Act, which allows the Minister to order the forfeiture of a mining location if the miner refuses to allow a dump to be utilised. The subsections give a right of appeal to the High Court against the Minister’s order, but they will be superseded by the new section 271A, inserted in the Act by clause 45, which gives a general right of appeal to the Administrative Court.

Clauses 47 to 49
Part XIX of the Mines and Minerals Act empowers the Secretary for Mines to issue special grants allowing prospecting or mining operations to be conducted on land that has been reserved against prospecting and pegging, while Part XX of the Act empowers the President to issue special grants for the mining of coal, mineral oils, natural gases or nuclear energy source material. The effect of these clauses is to abolish the first sort of special grants (they will be dealt with as mining leases) and to expand Part XX of the Act to include some of the provisions at present in Part XIX.

Clause 50
This clause will insert a new section 341A in the Mines and Minerals Act requiring the Mining Affairs Board, the Minister and all officials to observe the rules of natural justice — that is to say, to act fairly, to listen to arguments put forward by interested parties, to provide reasonable access to information, and to give reasons for their decisions. Much of the subject-matter of the new section is covered by the Administrative Justice Act [Chapter 10:28].

Clause 51
Section 342 of the Mines and Minerals Act empowers the Minister to fix the boundaries of mining districts. The new proviso inserted by this clause will ensure that the boundaries follow the grids defined by the Minister in terms of the new section 20 (as to which, see clause 9).

Clause 52
This clause will extend and up-date the Minister’s power to make regulations under section 403 of the Mines and Minerals Act, and will also insert a new provision (subsection (3a)) ensuring that any fees imposed under the Act are reasonable.

Clause 53
This clause will insert two new sections into the Mines and Minerals Act.
The new section 403A will simplify the way in which documentary evidence regarding mining rights is produced in court. It will also indicate how disputes over the boundaries of mining locations are to be resolved.

The new section 403B will regulate the composition of the Administrative Court for the purpose of hearing appeals under the Mines and Minerals Act and will regulate the court’s powers and procedure in such appeals.

Clause 54
This clause will insert in the Mines and Minerals Act a new Part (Part XXX) on the indigenisation of the mining industry. The Part consists of the following new sections:

Section 408
This contains the definitions of terms used in Part XXX. Of particular note is the definition of “strategic energy mineral”, which includes:

• coal;
• coalbed methane;
• petroleum;
• uranium;
• any other mineral related to the generation of energy as the Minister may prescribe by statutory instrument for the purposes of Part XXX;

Also noteworthy is the definition of what is meant by the “non-contributory interest” of the State in mining enterprises engaged in the mining for strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones. The definition makes reference to the State’s right to such an interest by virtue of its original ownership of all useful minerals in its subsoil.

Section 409
Part XXX will not apply to any person who is a “small-scale miner”, as defined in the new section 408. Nor will it apply to persons or mining companies that, on or after the date of commencement of section 54 of the Mines and Minerals Amendment Act, 2007, are parties to any agreement with the State or any statutory body for the extraction or exploitation of any mineral. Neither will the provisions relating to the non-contributory interest of the State in mining enterprises Part apply to mining companies in which at least a quarter of the shares are held by the State.

Section 410
This new section prohibits any person (individual, partnership or other unregistered association) from being involved in any mining for strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones, unless that person is registered or incorporated as a company.

Section 411
This new section sets out the objectives of the Government to:

• Obtain a 25% non-contributory interest in every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any one or more strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones;
• Obtain a 25% contributory interest in every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any one or more strategic energy minerals;
• Require every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any one or more precious metals or precious stones, to make available 25% of its shares available for acquisition by the State or indigenous Zimbabweans;
• Require every mining company engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any mineral other than a strategic energy mineral, precious metals or precious stones,, to make available 51% of its shares available for acquisition by the State or indigenous Zimbabweans.

Section 412
This new section requires an audit to be done by every mining commissioner of the life of every mine worked by mining companies engaged in extracting or exploiting any strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones, and the total amount by size or volume of the reserves of those minerals which those companies are entitled to extract or exploit. For that purpose a mining commissioner may demand relevant information from every mining company concerned, and penalties are provided in the case of refusal. The audit must be completed within three months of fixed date or within three months of the mining company concerned commencing operations, whichever is appropriate. Upon completion of the audit the mining commissioners will record the results in returns and transmit those returns to the Chief Mining Commissioner, who will, within 30 days of receiving them, consolidate them and send copies of thereof to the mining companies concerned. The mining companies will be afforded an opportunity of challenging the contents of the return relating to them by appeal to the Minister and, ultimately, to the Administrative Court. The returns are essential for the purpose of determining the liability of the mining companies for strategic energy minerals tax or precious minerals tax, or both.

Section 413
This new section subjects every existing mining company engaged in extracting or exploiting any strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones to liability for strategic energy minerals tax or precious minerals tax, or both. The tax is charged:

• as royalty of 25% of the total unbeneficiated annual value of the production of any strategic energy mineral or precious metals or precious stones by the company; or
• at the rate of 25% of the estimated value of the total strategic energy mineral or precious metals or precious stones reserves which that company is entitled to extract and exploit, where the company has not produced any of the taxable minerals during the period of 12 months ending on the 31st December in which it must pay the tax, or has not produced any of the taxable minerals in any 6 or more of those months,

It is made clear that the purpose of the tax is to encourage compliance by the mining companies concerned with the objectives outlined in the new section 411, and the liability may be discharged in the manner set out in the new section 414 outlined below.

In terms of subsection (4) of this new section, if a mining company engaged in the extraction or exploitation of any one or more strategic energy minerals, precious metals or precious stones ceases operations or is wound up or dissolved at any time after or within a period of three months from the fixed date, it shall become immediately liable for strategic energy minerals tax or precious minerals tax, or both, with effect from the date on which it ceases operations or is wound up or dissolved.

Section 414
This new section enables every mining company engaged in extracting or exploiting any strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones to avoid liability for strategic energy minerals tax or precious minerals tax, or both, by vesting in the State, free of any charge or encumbrance, title to not less than 25% of its shares. If it does not do so after two successive periods ending on the 31st December from the date it when it became liable for strategic energy minerals tax or precious minerals tax, the company’s liability for the tax will escalate by 1% for each year during which it continues to be liable for the tax.

Section 415
This new section provides for the manner in which the State may finance its contributory interest in mining companies engaged in extracting or exploiting any strategic energy minerals or precious metals or precious stones.

Sections 416 and 417
These new sections provide for the indigenisation or localisation of existing and future holdings of mining rights, and relates both to those mining rights that are held by mining companies engaged in extracting or exploiting any strategic energy minerals or precious minerals, and mining rights held by other persons or entities. It requires that a controlling interest in all mining enterprises must eventually be held by the State or indigenous persons. A right of first refusal for the purchase of the shares in any mining entity is given to the State and to indigenous Zimbabweans. Future mining enterprises will either be required to comply immediately with the indigenisation or localisation requirements, or, like existing enterprises, may also be given time within which to comply. A timetable is set out within which existing or future mining companies must be localised or indigenised, as follows:

• in relation to every mining company which on or after the fixed date is engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any precious metals or precious stones—
• at least 10% of its shares shall be owned by the State or one or more indigenous Zimbabweans, no later than two years from the fixed date or (in the case of future mining enterprises) the date of the company’s incorporation or registration as a mining company or the date when it acquired the relevant mining right, whichever is the later date;
• at least 20% of its shares shall be owned by the State or one or more indigenous Zimbabweans, no later than five years from the foregoing date;
• at least 26% of its shares shall be owned by the State or one or more indigenous Zimbabweans, no later than five years from the foregoing date;
• in relation to every mining company which on the fixed date is engaged in the extraction and exploitation of any mineral other than a strategic energy mineral, precious metals or precious stones—
• at least 20% of its shares shall be owned by the State or one or more indigenous Zimbabweans, no later than two years from the fixed date or (in the case of future mining enterprises) the date of the company’s incorporation or registration as a mining company or the date when it acquired the relevant mining right, whichever is the later date;
• at least 40% of its shares shall be owned by the State or one or more indigenous Zimbabweans, no later than five years from the foregoing date;
• at least 51% of its shares shall be owned by the State or one or more indigenous Zimbabweans, no later than seven years from the foregoing date.

Wilful failure to achieve these targets may render the mining company concerned liable to have all its mining rights cancelled by the Chief Mining Commissioner.

The timetable will be adjusted accordingly on a pro rata basis where the life of the mine or reserves worked by the mining enterprise is less than 10 years.

Clause 55 and Schedule
This clause, as read with the Schedule to the Bill, will make minor consequential amendments to the Mines and Minerals Act.

Clause 56
This clause deals with transitional matters such as the preservation of existing rights, the continued validity of existing appointments, the conversion of existing exclusive prospecting orders to exclusive exploration licences and of special grants to mining leases, and so on.

Clause 57
This clause corrects some errors in the Precious Stones Trade Act [Chapter 21:06] that arose in connection with the enactment of the Precious Stones Trade Amendment Act, No. 10 of 2007.

Schedule
The Schedule to the Bill has been dealt with in conjunction with clause 53.

PRESENTED BY THE MINISTER OF MINES AND MINING DEVELOPMENT

BILL

To amend the Mines and Minerals Act [Chapter 21:05] and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

ENACTED by the President and the Parliament of Zimbabwe.

1 Short title and date of commencement

(1) This Act may be cited as the Mines and Minerals Amendment Act, 2007.
(2) Subject to section 54(2), this Act shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by the President by statutory instrument:

Provided that the President may fix different dates of operation for different provisions of this Act.

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