ISO 9001:2000 CERTIFICATION

The Southern and Eastern African Mineral Centre (SEAMIC) is ISO 9001:2000 certified. The certification ceremony was held on the 29th November, 2005 at SEAMIC offices, in the outskirts of the city of Dar Es Salaam and was officiated by the Hon. Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. Pius Ng’wandu. The event was also witnessed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of SEAMIC, Mr. Ketema Tadesse, Mr. Antonio Pedro of UNECA the former Director General of SEAMIC, Dr. Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, the current Director General, invitees from France, Denmark, West Africa, from the member countries and local institutions.

Hon. Dr. Pius Ng’wandu, the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education of the United Republic of Tanzania, hands over the ISO 9001:2000 certificate to Dr. Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, the Director General of SEAMIC. Looking on is Mr. Ahadi Rajabu, of SGS who presented the certificate on behalf of the Director of SGS Tanzania Superintendence Company Limited. The event took place on 29th November 2005 at SEAMIC Offices.

ISO 9001:2000 is a standard developed to enable organizations to implement and operate effective Quality Management Systems. The standard is set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and specifies minimum requirements in terms of systems that have to be set up by an organization or company in order to ensure customer satisfaction.

The ISO 9001:2000 standard is based on eight management principles namely: customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, fact based decision-making and mutually beneficial supplier relationship.

SGS International (Société Générale de Surveillance) awarded the Centre with certificate number ZA05/0344.0 whose validity is from15th November 2005 to 15 November 2008.

SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company that is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity.

The Centre was assessed and certified after meeting the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 in respect of Laboratory services, research and development, collection, processing and dissemination of geo-information, specialized training and production of ceramics.

Management of Geological Surveys: Mandate and Financing

8 – 9 May 2006, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The Geological Survey Organisations are government agencies responsible for the acquisition, preparation, enhancement and dissemination of all basic geological and related information to the public. Most of the countries in the world have these institutions established and mandated to the described purpose. The Geological Surveys also assist the governments as technical advisors to the earth resources related issues, such as: development and exploitation of resources, risk management, environment management, and land use planning. In general the mandate of a Geological Survey Organisation is to provide “a comprehensive geoscience knowledge base contributing to economic development, public safety and environmental protection by acquiring, interpreting and disseminating geoscience information” (extracted from Geological Survey of Canada website).

In Africa most countries have operating Geological Surveys established in different form and authority. From the 70’s to early 90’s most of the geological surveys were the mineral exploration agencies of the government doing all the exploration work up to detail stage. Considerable number of mining developments were attributed to the contribution of the geological surveys’ exploration programmes and detailed studies.

The changes happened in most African countries in the 90’s affected the geological survey organisations in the continent. These institutions were being looked as less relevant by the policy makers since the exploration and development activities were diverted to the private sector, which were actually concentrated the in the few areas mapped by the geological surveys.

However, the reality in most African countries is that they are under explored and basic geological information is scarce and/or not up-to-date. The private sector’s involvement in generating basic information is very limited and considered non profitable, as a result, the geological surveys are still the sole generator of the basic geo-information infrastructure and advisors to the governments on the earth resources the countries endowed with.

The Southern and Eastern African Mineral Centre (SEAMIC), an intergovernmental mineral services provider is organising a workshop to discuss the mandates and financing of the geological surveys, with particular emphasis on geological surveys in eastern and southern Africa.

Objectives

The aim of the workshop is to create a forum of interaction of geological infrastructure development stakeholders to discuss the mandates of the geological survey organisations and what public should expect from their activities.

The workshop will discuss on, among other things:

• Current status of the geological surveys in Africa;
• How can their relevance be improved and have impact on decision makers;
• Lessons to be learned from surveys in other continents; and
• Capacity building efforts in the geological surveys.

AFRICAN MINING NETWORK MEETING

SEAMIC has volunteered to be a Secretariat and host of the African Mining Network (AMN). The AMN is a joint, UNECA and UNCTAD initiative which will provide a vehicle for the collection and dissemination of mining and minerals related information and enable the cross-fertilisation of ideas across the continent. The website template designed was presented by SEAMIC at the AMN meeting held in Kampala, Uganda on 18th May 2005.

The meeting have made the following decisions:
(i) There was a need for evaluation and assessment of AMN to measure progress, hence a need for a time horizon. The following are to be established within 6 months:

• A working website
• A plan indicating activities/areas of interest but not costed.

CASM (AFRICA) MEETING

The African Chapter of Communities and Small-scale Mining (CASM) network was established at the CASM meeting held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in October 2004 and SEAMIC was appointed to be a Secretariat of CASM (Africa). SEAMIC also agreed to host of the CASM (Africa) web site. The initial template of the web site was developed and presented at the second CASM (Africa) meeting held in Kampala, Uganda on 18 May 2005. The template was commented on by the participants for update and improvement. The improved template was submitted to the Chairman of the Committee to be presented in the CSAM meeting to be held in USA for soliciting assistance for the implementation of the network.

MINERAL EXPLORATION WORKSHOP

A workshop on "Mineral Exploration" was organised by SEAMIC from 2-6 May 2005. The workshop was attended by 41 high level experts from governments and geological surveys of SEAMIC member States, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa.

Representatives from the World Bank, European Geological Surveys (BGR, BGS, GTK, BRGM), private companies (AngloAmerican, Geosoft, Fugro), Universities (Germany, Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania) attended the workshop.

During the workshop, participants presented papers on the current status of the mineral exploration in their respective countries.

The main purpose of the workshop was to create a forum for discussion and exchange of experience among the stakeholders and formulate how best the experiences benefit the participants in their own activities in the development of the mineral exploration and its future. The workshop aims at gathering professionals in the mineral sector in the region and interested individuals together to discuss the current exploration activities and how the future can bring new ideas about exploring and exploiting the untapped resources.

WORKSHOP ON "MANAGEMENT OF MINERAL WEALTH"

The UNECA in collaboration with UNCTAD, SEAMIC, the CEPMLP of the University of Dundee, U.K. and the Government of Uganda, organised a workshop on "Integrated Resources Planning: Management of Minerals Wealth" held in Kampala, Uganda from 19 to 21 May 2005 and was targeted to senior policy makers. The main objectives of the workshop were to raise awareness on the potential role that minerals can play in supporting long term economic development and growth, and to disseminate knowledge and build capacity on mineral-related subjects, which are important to create a conducive environment for mineral resources development.