Tanzania has various revenue-generating streams, including the lucrative extractive industry, currently dominated by gold mining. Although the Tanzanian Bureau of Statistics Report does not identify gender equality expressly in its reports and documentation, we argue that Tanzanian women should be part of the country’s effort to capitalize and leverage the economically successful mineral section, especially its single-source tanzanite gemstone ASM and M2M industry. Mining governance and regulation is a crucial part of the country’s legal framework. We explain below the legal framework from a historic perspective to provide qualitative evidence of the adverse impact of mining licence practice on gender participation, de-railing female access to economic opportunity in the Tanzanian mining industry.

One of the most controversial issues in Africa, both in academic and public discourse, has been large-scale mineral extraction by foreign-owned corporations in African countries with vast oil and mineral resources [15].

The Tanzanian mining town Mererani is in closest proximity to the tanzanite deposit. Arusha is the largest city in the region and the most important centre for the tanzanite gemstone downstream supply chain trade. The industry was nationalised in the late 1960s with the establishment of Tanzania Gemstones Industries (TGI) when the production of the nationalised mines was very modest. However, a small-scale mining community was established and institutionalised in the 1980s. This created a dynamic tanzanite industry concentrated in the town of Mererani. To attract foreign direct investment (FDI), as endorsed by international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Tanzania updated its mining sector regulations [37]. The government promulgated the 1998 Mining Act to promote more FDI, resulting in a wave of predominantly South African investment in its mineral sector [38]. The review of its mining laws enabled mining operations and ASM activity to be regulated, with local ASM miners having the opportunity to be granted land titles and mining prospecting licences. Tanzanian mining regulation has social objectives in that it aims to reduce crime, violence and smuggling and establish a direct, secure channel for the gemstones to export markets. In 1992, British Samax was granted a licence to operate in the Mererani area. In 2001, AFGEM (later TanzaniteOne) started their production [39]. The emergence of large-scale mining radically changed the dynamic of the industry and threatened the local ASM Mererani mining community. Tanzanite is extracted only in a designated 12-square-kilometer mining site in the Merelani Hills; thus, its environmental impact is relatively low despite both LSM and ASM activities. The Merelani Hills are located approximately 5 km northwest of the Mererani township and 12 km southeast of Kilimanjaro International Airport, which serves the tourist towns of Arusha and Moshi. Mererani is in the Simanjiro district, which has an official population of 141,676 according to the 2002 Tanzanian National Census [40]. Simanjiro is traditionally associated with pastoralism and is one of the central areas for the indigenous Maasai [41]. Maasai society is strongly patriarchal in nature, with elder men, sometimes joined by retired elders, deciding most major matters for each Maasai group [42]. The Maasai’s traditional patriarchal society presents cultural and economic hurdles for women to achieve gender equality in the region, as we discuss in the sections to follow [43]. Sachedina and Trench provide the following vivid description of the area:

In Mererani, tanzanite mining is by far the main source of income; otherwise, the district has a very low population density. Hellieson’s research outlines in detail the history and governance of mining, highlighting the power imbalance between the small-scale mining (ASM) sector and the foreign private South African-based mining company TanzaniteOne [15]. The tanzanite mines are divided into four blocks, A through D. Of the four, Blocks B and D are mined by independent, small-scale male miners, while Block C is mined at a large scale by TanzaniteOne. A total of 430 plots are available in Blocks B and D. Block A is technically open for foreign investors, but local miners believe it should be worked by independent miners instead to enhance local employability. See also Hamza Kondo’s overview of the history of tanzanite mining licences as further mining regulation background [44]. A mining licence grants the holder exclusive rights to obtain access and explore the mining lease area. As part of ensuring adequate growth and development of the mining sector, mineral licences are issued at specific prices as a means of revenue generation for the government. The majority of the region’s inhabitants, especially women, are involved in agriculture and livestock keeping, but only rarely mining. While granting mining licences to women is not unlawful, until 2005, women were not permitted to be in the tanzanite mine, allegedly for safety reasons such as intimidation, discrimination, name-calling, sexualised talk, display of body parts, bullying, violence, etc [45]. The lack of inclusivity in tanzanite mining creates an obstacle to women’s involvement in the tanzanite mining M2M sector. In the literature and documents reviewed for this research, the author was unable to locate or access data or statistics on the subject of female participation in ASM or large-scale tanzanite mining.

Turning to real property rights in land, men presently form the majority of landholders. In the Tanzanian mainland, 73% of landholders are men, whereas only 27% are women [46]. Khan observes that the fact that the Tanzanian government owns all property rights to subsurface minerals has made mining policies in Tanzania more efficient than in other African states (and perhaps more easily changed to ensure gender inclusivity in the future). He concludes, however, that most mining conflicts in Tanzania have involved tense confrontations between public mining companies (PMCs) and ASM miners over the right to mine and not over the right to the land itself [47]. Lange suggests that the Tanzanian population is in general “extremely resentful of large-scale mining” and appears to feel betrayed by the Tanzanian state government, given their perception of few benefits flowing from the foreign mining companies to the local region [48]. On the other hand, TanzaniteOne Limited, the world’s single largest miner and supplier of tanzanite, financially supports several community projects as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. These include a reverse osmosis plant which delivers 30,000 L of water per day (with a donation of 6 million Tanzanian shillings), the Naisinayai Police Station (55 million Tanzanian shillings), free sort-house debris bags and maintenance of the local water supply (45 million Tanzanian shillings [49]. Since 2013, the mining operation is operated as a Joint Venture between the Tanzanian State Mining Corporation (STAMICO), is a state-owned enterprise that currently operates the tanzanite mine located in Block C of the Mererani Area in Simanjiro District, Manyara Region. STAMICO owns 50% of the shares, and TanzaniteOne Mining Ltd. (TML) owns the remaining 50% of the shares [50].

Section 8.3 of the United Republic of Tanzania 2010 Mining Act now provides that “[a] mining licence for mining gemstones shall only be granted to applicants who are Tanzanians”. Gemstone mining may involve non-Tanzanians if the government determines that the development of gemstone resources requires specialised skills, technology or a large level of investment. However, according to the Act, the non-citizen share of a company cannot be more than fifty percent (Section 8). As part of wider reform efforts to make the Tanzanian diversified mining sector more competitive, the government joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2009 with its latest validation in 2020, a positive development. Next, we examine the historically limited opportunities for women in tanzanite ASM mining.

With a historical, legal and geographic overview of Tanzania’s mining sector, next we turn to the subject of female entrepreneurship in the tanzanite gemstone sector to promote gender equality. In developed countries with mining industries such as the USA, Canada and Australia, the number of women in mining has steadily increased. Women work in various roles and capacities on a mine site, e.g., as mine workers, rough sorters, lorry drivers, plant operators, laboratory analysts, engineers and geologists, extending their influence and expertise into their local communities and beyond. However, despite Tanzania being one of the best performing economies in East Africa with sustained economic growth reflected in improved human development, gender inequalities and significant gender lags in both economic participation and income persist. Tanzania’s gender development index (GDI) value is 0.937, while its gender inequality index (GII) value is 0.544, ranking it 129 out of 159 countries studied [51]. In the tanzanite mining industry, gender inequalities persist, as illustrated by the intriguing Pili Hussein case study involving Tanzania’s first female tanzanite miner.

3. Women Tanzanite Miner Groups: Addressing Economic Exclusion Post-2005

Although Pili Hussein had to disguise herself to secure a tanzanite mining licence and enter the mine, the situation has improved. For the first time in May 2005 a group from the Tanzanite Women Miners Development Union (TWMDU) tackled gender inequality when their members were finally permitted to enter the tanzanite mines to mine as male miners do [64]. TWMDU members are tanzanite mining licence holders but had previously been forbidden to enter the mines due to safety concerns. TWMDU treasurer Salome Chami advised that to strengthen their unity as female tanzanite miners, the women purchased a joint tanzanite mining plot in Block B for their use as a training tool and for practice in tanzanite mining. The women’s strategy also involved teaching each other how to facet tanzanite rough into a variety of common shapes, e.g., round, rose, princess and pear cut, another step along the M2M supply chain. Members of TWMDU allege that the mining licence system suffers from corruption and that individuals are granted mining licences based on relationships with government officials, or officials themselves own mining plots, yet conceal the fact using the names of small-scale miners. Furthermore, they allege that female tanzanite ASM miners often work outside the regulated mine in piles of mine tailings owned by larger companies, illegally searching for tiny shards of tanzanite, which is considerably less lucrative, an aspect of gender inequality [65].

In contrast, a male tanzanite miner, Saminiu Laizer (52 years), mined two tanzanite stones weighing 9.2 kg and 5.8 kg, selling them at a gemstone trade event in Manyara, northern Tanzania, for GBP 2.6 m, becoming a tanzanite millionaire. The BBC’s Sammy Awami reported that President John Magufuli telephoned to congratulate Laizer on the find, saying, “This is the benefit of small-scale miners and this proves that Tanzania is rich”. President Magufuli was elected in 2015, promising to protect Tanzania’s interests in the mining sector and to increase the government’s revenue from it [66]. In 2017, he ordered the military to build a 24 km (14-mile) perimeter wall around the Merelani mining site in Manyara surrounding the Block A-B-C-D tanzanite mine. The government reported an increase in revenue in the mining sector attributed to the construction of the wall [11]. Once again on his licenced territory, in 2020, Laizer discovered a third high-quality large tanzanite gemstone weighing 6.3 kg, valued at over GBP 1.5 m, which he sold directly to the Tanzanian government [67]. While these tanzanite finds are rare, women without the opportunity to lawfully mine onsite suffer heavily from such missed opportunities. Institutional support is needed to ensure that women have an equal opportunity to participate in the sector, particularly in view of tanzanite being classed as a generational gemstone, the implications of which will be discussed next.

4. Institutional Support for Women in the Tanzanite M2M Sector beyond Depletion

Mining gemstones is an old practice in Tanzania, a locale that has been more blessed with precious gemstone deposits due to favourable geological conditions. From an economic standpoint, tanzanite, along with other coloured gemstones found in Tanzania and East Africa, are subject to increasing demand globally, especially from the growing middle classes in the People’s Republic of China and India [68]. The growing demand creates valuable economic opportunities for Tanzania. According to Stuart Robertson:

Tanzania is host to a vibrant gem trade. The country, like its East African neighbours, is rich with mineral deposits, many of which are relatively recent discoveries. For miners and traders, the wealth inherent in these finite resources can be as elusive as the gems themselves.

[11]

In the jewellery industry, tanzanite is what is known as a “generational gemstone” likely to become extinct in one generation. Geologists estimate that its supply may be entirely depleted within the next 20 years, or possibly even sooner [69]. Many such gems will become even more valuable as they are passed to future generations. Tanzanite is a modern gemstone and one of the rarest on Earth enhancing its economic value. The precious stone’s appeal lies in its variety of hues, including green, red, purple and blue. Its value is determined by rarity—the finer the colour or clarity, the higher the price. Tanzanite gemstones will continue to be traded even after the mine is eventually depleted and will be forever connected to Tanzania. As we have seen, both artisanal and large-scale tanzanite mining are subject to gendered division of labour in terms of the classification and allocation of tasks for women and men due to gender stereotyping. In terms of gender and development, institutional support is needed for women in the commercial tanzanite and other mining sectors to eliminate gender-based discrimination and provide better and equal opportunities to work in ASM, should women choose to do so. It is especially important that women are not economically excluded as demand for the generational gemstone increases over the next decades. Even though tanzanite is a recently discovered “modern” rare gemstone, it now rivals the world’s big four gems (ruby, sapphire, emerald and diamond) in popularity and its value has only ever increased since its discovery.

5. Gender Equity Law in Tanzania

The Republic of Tanzania operates under a dual legal system, consisting of customary and religious laws. The constitution of Tanzania promulgated in 1977, as amended, prohibits discrimination based on gender. Tanzania has also ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the South African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development. Furthermore, at the domestic policy level, Tanzania Development Vision 2025 recognises the importance of gender equality and the empowerment of women [70]. A new Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Seniors and Children was established in 2015 and is responsible for coordinating policies and strategies related to gender equality and the empowerment of women, and monitoring implementation of these policies [71]. Ensuring gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is one of the key strategies adopted by the Tanzanian government as the country journeys toward achieving sustainable development through its National Plan of Action and National Strategy for Gender Development (2016–2020). The plan and reflects the country’s commitment to global frameworks such as CEDAW, the African Union Gender Policy and Action Plan and the Maputo Protocol. The empowerment of young women is a key development area in the ongoing process of deepening pillars of democracy and good governance in Tanzania. However, gender in the context of the mining industry is not explicitly addressed as an area of policy concern or challenge. Given the economic contribution of mining to the country’s GDP, we argue this should be a prominent priority, especially in light of the facts discussed below.

6. Promoting Gender Equity in Tanzanite M2M and Public Policy Recommendations

While Tanzania is making progress organizing the tanzanite gemstone sector to avail itself of economic opportunities, the next stage must include women’s economic participation. The unrealised potential of female entrepreneurship for a sustainable Tanzanian economy is immense. As a minimum, relevant policy objectives should include supporting the following:

• TTP-compliant female ASM miners to scale up beyond subsistence with investment in basic equipment and facilitate ASM and M2M skills training;
• Transparent and gender sensitive allocation of mining licences/mine access;
• Design of safe and inclusive mining work environments for women;
• Reduce the gender pay gap between women and men and produce pay guidance and gemstone grading standards (AAAA, AAA, AA and A) and price guides for female ASM tanzanite miners;
• Female entrepreneurship in the M2M supply chain with education, micro-finance, internet access, small business skills and branding as a foundation for 21st century business development and long-term financial success;
• The work of the Tanzania Women Miners Association (TOWAMA) and the Association of Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce; and
• Existing and new orrganisations that empower women consistent with the needs and demands of the global gemstone industry.

A national plan for a thriving, safe and inclusive 21st century M2M tanzanite gemstone sector involving women could be strategized. In the medium to long term, when Tanzanite gemstone availability declines, objectives might include support for local gemstone dealers; lapidarists; jewellery designers; physical, broadcast television and online e-retail; second-hand jewellery sales; pawnbrokers; and the like. As women become better organised, educated and gain relevant work experience, creating a range of social and cultural “tanzanite careers for women” and training events in the region would enhance sustainable development even after the tanzanite underground supply is used up or until a new source is located. Such sustainable development activities would highlight the range of roles for women in value-adding post-gemstone extraction.