Vancouver-based Sutton Resources had an inside track with the Tanzanian government. CEO James Sinclair was a friend of the president of Tanzania and several senior ministers, as was his daughter.
In September 1994 the Tanzanian government granted a mining licence to Kahama Mining, which Sutton owned.
The company wasted no time, preparing to explore the property to determine the value of what lay underground.
They encountered problems from the local population at every turn.
“Under normal circumstances, illegal entrants or occupants of an exploration site tend to drift away or leave the area upon the arrival of the legal owners, but in our case there appears to be some type of organized resistance,” said Bill Bali, Kahama’s resident director, in a spring 1995 memo.
Shortly after this memo was issued, a surveyor for Kahama found out how strong these feelings were. He encountered small-scale miner Buchwadi Mbelwa while driving through Bulyanhulu in a company truck.
“[On] this vehicle should have been written ‘Hostile Mining Corporation,’ not Kahama Mining Corporation,” Mbelwa said. “We are not going to leave this place at all. Nobody is going to leave this place for the white man.”
On the same day, Kahama was trying to remove the locals’ water pumps to force out the miners, who needed the pumps to keep their mines dry. The situation exploded at a meeting between the company and the miners.
“If the company wants the miners to move out peacefully, it will be better if the miners are given a reasonable time,” said one local official.
Mbelwa put his point more bluntly. “This corporation is giving pump owners a week to leave…. Who the hell do they think they are? Do they think they are the government?”
Mbelwa then threw a punch at one of Kahama’s workers.
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