For most Tanzanians, a gold mine is imagined in headlines: tonnes of ore, billions in revenues, royalties flowing to the Treasury. But for the villagers of Sotta, Nyamatengo, and Kakora, Nyanzaga began not with figures but with stakes driven into the soil around their homes. Surveyors arrived before bulldozers. The first visible act of mining was displacement.
Around 160 households lie within the footprint of Nyanzaga’s pit, tailings dam, and roads. Many more farm plots will be lost even if houses remain standing. For these families, the project is not an abstraction of ounces or AISC; it is a life upended, a new home promised, and livelihoods that must be rebuilt.
This is where Tanzania’s new mining compact is tested most directly. The law may guarantee state equity and royalties, but the social licence comes from whether families uprooted for gold emerge better off. History weighs heavily: the traumatic resettlement at Bulyanhulu in the 1990s remains a cautionary tale. Nyanzaga cannot afford to repeat it.
The scale of displacement
The 23.4 km² Special Mining Licence looks tidy on a minister’s map. On the ground, it covers homesteads, cassava plots, mango trees, and communal graveyards. The RAP (Resettlement Action Plan) identifies about 160 physically displaced households, families whose roofs lie directly in the pit, tailings basin, or access corridor. Hundreds more face economic displacement, losing farmlands or grazing rights without moving houses.
Compared to Tanzania’s giant mines, this is modest in scale. Bulyanhulu displaced thousands; Geita reshaped entire wards. Yet scale does not soften impact. For a family forced to leave land cultivated for generations, resettlement is seismic. The small number is politically useful, it signals “manageable displacement”, but socially, each case is a test of credibility.
The Resettlement Action Plan (RAP)
Under Tanzanian law and international standards (IFC PS5), Nyanzaga’s RAP must deliver replacement, not reduction. The plan includes:
- Housing: new brick, tin-roofed houses with water and sanitation. Model homes were showcased in 2023 to reassure villagers of quality.
- Land-for-land: relocated families receive new plots near resettlement sites, not just cash.
- Cash compensation: for crops, trees, and small structures.
- Community infrastructure: new schools, health posts, and boreholes where villages relocate.
Crucially, the RAP is a precondition of mining. The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) certificate is contingent on its implementation. This makes resettlement not a goodwill gesture but a legal and operational requirement. Regulators and NGOs will track progress closely; any slippage could stall permits or inflame tensions.
Livelihood restoration
A new roof is only the beginning; survival depends on incomes. Nyanzaga’s RAP therefore commits to livelihood restoration. Farmers losing fertile land will receive improved seed packages, training, and irrigation support. Youth will get preference in hiring during construction and training for skilled jobs. Women are targeted with microcredit and enterprise programs (tailoring, poultry, trade).
Importantly, outcomes will be monitored: household income, school attendance, and nutrition will be tracked over several years. This is where many mining RAPs fail, cash payouts dissolve quickly, leaving families worse off. Nyanzaga must prove it can reverse that history.
For Perseus, livelihood restoration is more than ESG branding; it is economics. A community at odds with the mine risks stoppages and reputational damage that cost millions. For villagers, it is the line between sacrifice and opportunity. If executed well, families may indeed find themselves better off in 2030 than in 2020.
Community Development Agreement (CDA)
Nyanzaga is one of the first new Tanzanian mines that must operate under a Community Development Agreement (CDA), a legally binding contract, not a CSR brochure. By law, at least 0.7% of annual revenues must be channelled into local development projects. That means new schools, clinics, boreholes, and feeder roads, investments negotiated with district councils and village committees, then audited for delivery.
This marks a shift from the past, when “CSR” was voluntary and often ad hoc. Communities had no guarantee beyond corporate goodwill. Now, the CDA codifies a minimum floor of benefit, backed by law. For villagers, it provides leverage; for government, it provides political cover; for Perseus, it provides predictability. The challenge will be prioritisation: whether limited funds are spread thin across many requests, or concentrated on transformative projects. Either way, the CDA embeds communities into the financial structure of the mine, not as petitioners but as stakeholders.
Grievance redress & accountability (≈210 words)
Even the best-designed RAP or CDA faces disputes. That is why Nyanzaga has installed a grievance redress mechanism (GRM). In theory, villagers can file complaints, about compensation amounts, construction delays, or dust and traffic, through village committees, logged formally, and escalated to district and company management.
Grievance data is more than paperwork. It is a barometer of trust. A steady flow of small grievances suggests the system is used and respected; silence can mean either satisfaction or fear of futility. The true test will be responsiveness: are grievances resolved quickly and transparently, or do they linger in bureaucratic loops?
Accountability is also external. NGOs, journalists, and independent auditors will track whether Nyanzaga’s promises, houses, livelihoods, CDA projects, are delivered. For Perseus, this scrutiny is a double-edged sword: uncomfortable at times, but also insurance against the reputational damage that has haunted other Tanzanian mines.
Risks in the social compact (≈230 words
Nyanzaga’s social contract carries several risks:
- Delay risk: if resettlement houses are not completed before mining begins, trust collapses instantly.
- Expectation gap: villagers may expect jobs for all, but the mine can only absorb a fraction. Managing expectations is as vital as delivering houses.
- Legacy memory: Bulyanhulu’s mass displacement in the 1990s remains in the collective consciousness. Any hint of shortcuts will be judged against that painful benchmark.
- Civil society scrutiny: Tanzanian NGOs, often overlooked, are increasingly assertive. A single grievance amplified through media can travel nationally and internationally.
These risks are not peripheral; they are central. A mine can manage metallurgical recovery with chemicals, but social recovery requires constant dialogue, fair practice, and visible delivery.
Opportunity to reset the narrative
Yet within these risks lies opportunity. If Nyanzaga executes resettlement and livelihood restoration properly, it can reset Tanzania’s mining narrative. Instead of being remembered for displacements marred by injustice, it could be remembered for building model villages, creating local businesses, and elevating households.
This opportunity extends beyond Sengerema. Success at Nyanzaga could become a national showcase, proving that the 2017 mining reforms do more than increase royalties, that they enforce tangible benefits at the grassroots. For Perseus, it would cement a reputation as a miner that builds trust as well as pits. For Tanzania, it would signal to investors and citizens alike that mines can be both profitable and equitable.
The real license to mine (≈200 words)
Nyanzaga holds its formal license from Cabinet and the Mining Commission. But its real license to mine is held by the people whose lands and livelihoods it touches. They will judge it not by ounces produced but by whether their new houses are better than their old ones, whether their children’s schools are improved, whether boreholes flow, and whether jobs materialise.
In this sense, resettlement and community development are not side projects, they are the mine’s central legitimacy. Gold may be Tanzania’s export, but trust is its license. Nyanzaga’s challenge is to prove that when people are moved for mining, they are moved forward, not backward.
