Investment Opportunities in the Mining Industry in Tanzania

The Tanzania Mining industry is highly important due to that it accounts for a significant share of the country’s export revenues. The Government’s plan is to have this sector contribute 10% of GDP by 2025. Besides a few major companies, such as African Barick Gold, AngloGold Ashanti, Williamson Diamonds Limited (WDL), etc., this sector contains several medium scale companies and a cluster of small-scale mining companies. Key mineral deposits include coal, copper, diamonds, gold, nickel, silver, uranium, and Tanzanite gemstone, which is found nowhere in the world other than Tanzania. Even though the current discoveries of huge deposits of gas may change the equation, the Government had a long view that coal should become one of the fastest growing areas in Tanzania, mainly because the country planned to deploy coal-fired power to offset the shortage of energy.

This sector presents plenty of investment opportunities, such as:

• Establishment of gold refinery activities

• Establishment of value added activities:

• Gemstone cutting & polishing (lapidary);

• Rock and mineral carvings;

• Jewelry manufacturing utilizing gold and gemstones;

• Mineral processing industry – e.g. smelters (amount of Cu–Concentrates)

• New areas in mineral exploration:

• Industrial minerals beneficiation for local consumption & export – e.g. lime production, soda ash, kaolin, gypsum, coal, iron ore, dimension stones etc.

• Base metals including platinum group metal (PGM)

• Service industry:

• Supply equipment & materials e.g. explosives, grinding media, mill liners etc. under JVs with Tanzanian entrepreneurs

• Drilling 

 Reasons to Invest in Tanzania Mining Sector:

1. Over 800,000 sq. km of varied geological terrains with potential mineral resources.

• Ongoing exploration works, which resulted in the discovery of resources in excess of 45 million ounces of gold, 1.5 million tons of nickel and 50 million karats of Tanzanite.

• An Achaean shield environment with a number of classical Canadian-and-Australian-type greenstone gold lode deposits, many capped by tropically weathered enrichment zones.

• An extensive Proterozoic terrain containing lode and near-surface gold deposit types, now attracting exploration attention in South America, West Africa and elsewhere.

• A potential for epithermal gold deposits in the faulted younger rocks on the coastal plain.

• A world-class diamondiferous kimberlite at Mwadui and more than 200 other kimberlites, many of which are yet to be thoroughly evaluated.

• Scores of occurrences of high-value colored gemstones, such as emerald, ruby, tsavorite, sapphire, tanzanite, and alexandrite

• A wealth of other opportunities in minerals, particularly industrial minerals including coal, iron, tin, graphite, evaporates, kaolin, lime stones, dimension stones, phosphates, and gypsum.

• More than a dozen carbonatites, dimension stones, few of which have been thoroughly explored.

2. The Recent history of production decisions by well-financed, international companies.

3. A history of precious and base metals mining, with opportunities for revival in a new economic era.

4. Ample inventory of unexplored mineral ground.

5. A comprehensive systematically archived database on geoscientific information and mineral resources.

6. Minimal competition at present from large multinational mining companies.

7. Technical staff trained in various disciplines associated with mining.

8. Well established supporting services to the mining sector

 Mineral Endowments

Tanzania has over 800,000 sq. km of various geological terrains with potential mineral resources:

• Gold in Archaean greenstone belts –south and east of Lake Victoria

• Gold and base metals in Proterozoic rocks in southwestern, southern and eastern parts of the country

• Kimberlite pipes in central and southern portion of the Archaean craton and in Proterozoic south and east of the Craton

• Gemstones such as tanzanite, ruby, sapphire, spinel, tourmaline, topaz, scapolite, aquamarine, emeralds, amethyst, garnets (tsavorite, rhodolite, hessonite almandine, pyrope, etc.) in Proterozoic rocks east, west and south of the Archaean Craton.

• Nickel, copper, and cobalt associated with ultramafic rocks Western part of the country

• Tin and tungsten in Proterozoic rocks North western part of the country

• Iron ore in Proterozoic rocks southern part of the country

• Coal in Karoo System southern part of the country

• Evaporates such as gypsum, salts in the rift valley and along the coastal belt

• Industrial minerals such as limestone, kaolin, diatomite, phosphates, graphite in different parts of the country.


Competitive advantages of the Mining Sector:

• Considerable unexploited mineral potentials;

• Good investment climate through policy, legal, institutional reform;

• Attractive fiscal package;

• Social and political stability;

• Accessible geological data and information; and

• Transparent process of granting mineral rights