East African Mining News Unearthing Mining Opportunities in East Africa
Related Articles
DODOMA — Tanzania is attempting to strike a balance between aggressively commercializing its critical minerals and preserving priceless archaeological history, as booming mining revenues place its subterranean wealth at the center of the nation’s economic agenda.
Government revenues from mining surged to more than 1.071 trillion Tanzanian shillings ($400 million) in the 2024/25 financial year, up from 526 billion shillings in 2020/21. The Ministry of Minerals targets 1.2 trillion shillings for the 2025/26 fiscal year, signaling the sector’s shift from a peripheral contributor to a core driver of national GDP, employment, and foreign trade.
However, policymakers and researchers argue that capturing maximum value requires moving beyond raw resource extraction to embrace localized processing all while safeguarding geological and historical sites.
While gemstones like tanzanite found exclusively in the Mererani Hills and critical minerals like graphite are driving industrial push, Tanzania’s rocks hold a dual significance. At sites like Olduvai Gorge, worked chert and quartz tools carry immense archaeological value despite having zero commercial trade price.
“Prehistoric people placed high value on different rock types based on their physical and chemical properties,” said Daniel Jackson Masika, a Palaeolithic archaeology researcher at the University of Dar es Salaam. “Toolmakers sought stones with high silica content and fine, even grains because they could be struck to make sharp edges rather than breaking along unpredictable natural planes.”
The two forms of value commercial commodities and scientific preservation can coexist due to the nation’s diverse geological setting, according to former Geological Survey of Tanzania Chief Executive Prof. AbdulKarim Mruma.
To retain more economic output, Tanzania is pressing for in-country value addition, including localized cutting and polishing of tanzanite and downstream refining of graphite for global electric vehicle battery manufacturing. The strategy aims to build local technical capacity, expand domestic industrialization, and prevent critical economic and scientific value from leaving the country uncaptured.
