RWANDA Law and Practice Contributed by: Aimery de Schoutheete and Penina Ngabire, Liedekerke Great Lakes
Liedekerke Great Lakes KG 541 St Kigali Rwanda Tel: +25 079 869 5912 Email: info@liedekerke.com Web: www.liedekerke.com
1. Mining Law: General Framework 1.1 Main Features of the Mining Industry Update Rwanda’s mining sector has been develop - ing rapidly in recent years. Today, mining is the country’s largest export revenue earner, followed by tourism. Rwanda is presented as one of the world’s larg - est producers of the 3Ts (tin, tantalum and tung - sten) and exports gold, lithium and gemstones. Future Objectives Rwanda’s mining sector consists mainly of arti - sanal and small-scale mining. The country aims to attract international investment to modernise, industrialise and expand the sector. Similarly, the sector’s exports are mainly raw mineral concentrates and not metals. Rwanda’s near-future ambition is to become a mineral processing and value-addition hub in the region and to attract investors to set up modern value- addition processing in the country. To achieve its objectives, Rwanda recently established the Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board (RMB) and developed a modern legal framework. Rwanda also offers several incen -
tives to mining investors, as mining is consid - ered a priority sector. Fundamental Legal Principles Governing the Mining Industry In a nutshell, the following fundamental princi - ples apply to any mining activity in Rwanda: • all rights of ownership and control of minerals or quarry products under, or upon any land in Rwanda are vested in the state, notwithstand - ing personal ownership of land and other properties thereon; • mineral exploration, exploitation, process - ing and trading can only be carried out by a licence holder (LH), ie, an entity that has a mineral licence (ML) or a quarry licence (QL) from the RMB (to date, the RMB records 940 active licences in total, including about 21 mineral exploration licences and 194 mineral mining licences); • the LH is required to submit to the RMB an environmental and social impact assessment approved by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) prior to commencing operations; • in the case of discovery of a mineral or quarry deposit, the landowner or lawful occupier is fairly compensated in accordance with Law No 32/2015 of 11 June 2015 relating
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