Miners urged to preserve environment

RWANDA: The State Minister in charge of Mining, Evode Imena, has urged mining inspectors and mining association representatives to ensure that all mining activities are conducted in a way that does not compromise the environment.

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The state minister said this during a two-day training for mining inspection officers and representatives of Rwanda mining association at the provincial and district levels.

The training, that ended in Kigali on Saturday, 28 March 2015, covered subjects like environment and climate change mainstreaming, guidelines for Strategic Environment Assessment (Sea) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

"Whoever looks for quick gains in mining will undermine our environment. You should mind about the environment because it benefits us all," he said, adding that environment preservation leads to sustainability of mining activities.

Clarisse Bumwe Litha, the head of the mining department at the Ministry of Natural Resources, urged the mining association representatives to strive for the welfare of the miners and the population around mining sites.

The mining industry comprises 800 mining sites with 754 license holders and 400 mining companies and cooperatives.