LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Upping the ante in the country's battle with international mining companies, Tanzania's President John Magufuli has ordered a wall to be built around its tanzanite mines to "control illegal mining and trading activities".
Magufuli, nicknamed 'the Bulldozer' for his no-nonsense style, said the army will construct a wall around the 15 square-kilometre mine site to curb smuggling of the rare gemstone, the local Citizen newspaper reported.

The President, who visited the area after a parliamentary probe into tanzanite mining industry, said the findings "shows how much the resource benefit a few".

The wall will come complete with cameras and checkpoints, with statement from the presidency saying that "all tanzanite gemstones will be controlled and will pass through one gate".

Tanzania's central bank has been ordered by Magufuli to take part in the tanzanite buying trade, Reuters reported.

"President John 'The Bulldozer' Magufuli is apparently taking a leaf out of President Trump's playbook, reportedly ordering the military to build walls around the country's tanzanite mines," said analyst Yuen Low at Shore Capital.

Earlier this month, the Tanzanian government seized a 71.7k carat parcel from Petra Diamonds' Williamson mine, which been registered as containing 14kg worth 33bn shillings but which the government apparently alleged contained nearly 30kg worth 65bn shillings.

Petra pointed out that the government has "complete oversight" of diamonds produced at the mine, which are "physically controlled by a number of different government representatives in conjunction with Petra" from point of recovery to point of sale.

ShoreCap's Low noted that the parcel had yet to be released and Petra still to be officially apprised of the grounds for the Tanzanian government's action.

"We noted that if the developments at Acacia can be taken as a precedent, Petra could be waiting a very long time - as far as we are aware, Acacia is still waiting for reports that, in our view, should have in the interests of transparency been made available to it (and the public at large) in May 2017.

"We suspect that release of the Acacia and Petra reports would likely lead to a significant loss of face for President Magufuli, and we do not believe he is the sort of person to tolerate such a thing, so we would not be surprised if they never saw the light of day."

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE