DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) --A top official of Tanzania's ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), on Saturday ordered relevant authorities to install a screening machine to reinforce inspection of Tanzanite, a rare gemstone, at its mining area in Manyara region.
Humphrey Polepole, CCM Ideology and Publicity Secretary, directed the Ministry of Minerals to ensure that the screening machine was installed at the Tanzanite mining location to reinforce the protection of the gemstone, found only in the east African nation.
"The screening machine should be installed at the main gate to the Tanzanite mining site. We should do away with the current procedure where guards physically inspect people coming out of the mining site," he said when he paid a visit to the mining site in Simanjiro district.
Polepole said the acquisition of the screening machine will facilitate the government's plan to reinforce protection of the blue and violet gemstone from being smuggled out of the mining site.
In September 2017, Tanzanian president ordered the army to construct a wall around the Tanzanite mining area in the north of the country as part of the government's effort to protect the precious gemstone from being smuggled out of the mining site.
Once the construction of the wall was complete, the president further ordered for the installation of CCTV camera that would detect those smuggling Tanzanite from the mine.
A parliamentary inquiry team said on Sept. 7, 2017, that it had uncovered massive smuggling of the blue-violet Tanzanite gemstone. Enditem
