Government and other stakeholders in the mining sector on Monday discussed ways of improving safety of miners.
The two day function which will end today is being conducted at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.
Speaking with reporters, Deputy Director of Mines Peter Chilumanga said that there is a need to follow safety measures when working in mines since workers are prone to diseases such tuberculosis .
Chilumanga noted that the process of revising Mines and Minerals Act is very important in order to improve the sector.
“We are discussing mines safety regulations since the old acts were shallow and lacked strong measures for both employees and employers,” he explained
He said that safety talks on people’s health status was supposed to be done periodically as away of civic educating the miners.
According to Chilumanga, managers are supposed to report to the department every month on the status of all employees.
He went on to say that companies also need to have records of accidents which happened on the mines.
According to him,the revised act will ensure that companies that fail to put the needs of their workers at heart are imposed with penalties.
He also said that the department believes that by following the measures they can be on the same page with other countries such as Zimbabwe,Tanzania and South Africa.
