Williamson Diamond Mine, Mwazui, Tanzania

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

is a land rich in minerals. Mining makes up more than 50% of the country's total exports, of which a large part comes from

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile m ...

. The country has gold reserves of 10 million ounces, generating revenue of over a billion USD.

Diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

s are also found in significant amounts. Since it was opened in 1940, the

Williamson diamond mine The Williamson Diamond Mine (also known as the Mwadui mine) is a diamond mine northeast of Shinyanga in Tanzania; it became well known as the first significant diamond mine outside of South Africa. The mine was established in 1940 by Dr. John ...

has produced 19 million carats (3,800 kg) of diamonds. Gemstones,

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

, copper,

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weakly ...

kaolin Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral s ...

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pro ...

and

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platin ...

are also mined in Tanzania.

Illegal mining Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission, in particular in absence of land rights, mining licenses, and exploration or mineral transportation permits. Illegal mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the cas ...

and corruption are ongoing problems. In 2017, the government passed a series of bills aimed at increasing revenue from minerals after a scandal which caused the dismissal of the Minister for Energy and Minerals.

History

Although the mining industry was originally government owned and controlled, the mining laws were relaxed in the 1980s and 1990s to allow for private ownership of mining claims and the introduction of foreign companies. In 2008, the mining industry employed an estimated one million people in artisanal operations, although an accurate figure is difficult to obtain given the nature of the industry. In 2011, the contribution of the mining sector to the economy rose by 2.1% above the 2010 figure of 2.7%. As of 2011, there were 50,000 artisanal miners involved in the mining of colored gemstones. In 2015 the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

offered Tanzania a 45 million loan to improve the small scale mining industry in rural Tanzania.

Production and impact

is prevalent in Tanzania, and poses a significant risk to those undertaking the practice. In 2015, a tunnel collapsed in an illegal mine near the Bulyanhulu Gold Mine, killing 19 people. Employees at smaller mines in Tanzania have to deal with significantly poorer ventilation than their counterparts at larger operations. Exposure to silica at a small mine is more than two hundred times that at a larger site, while overall airborne silica exposure is more than three hundred times the limit set by

NIOSH The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the C ...

in the United States. Tuberculosis in Tanzanian miners is significantly higher than the country's average.

Legal framework

Mining was strictly controlled and operated by the government during the 1970s and 1980s. Mining claims were then opened up to individuals, which sparked the small scale mining industry of Tanzania. In the 1990s, the laws were further relaxed to encourage the introduction of companies who would export the mining products, and investment by international mining companies which opened up large scale mining operations. Notable legislation for the mining industry includes the 1997 Mineral Policy, the 1998 Mineral Act and the 2010 Mineral Act. The latest piece of legislation granted the mining company a higher percentage of royalties on gold and base metals, rough diamonds, colored gemstones, uranium and other minerals; made it mandatory for mining companies to be listed on the stock exchange and gave the government a stake in all new mining projects. Tanzania has accepted the

Kimberley Process Certification Scheme The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is the process established in 2003 to prevent " conflict diamonds" from entering the mainstream rough diamond market by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/56 following recommendations in ...

. Tanzania's president, John Magufuli, imposed new laws on the mining industry in 2017, including higher taxes on mineral exports and allowing the government to have a higher stake in some mining operations. These laws have been slowing investment in the sector.Reuters
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Commodities

The mining industry makes a significant contribution to the Tanzanian economy, mainly through the extraction of copper,

, and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical co ...

, along with some industrial minerals and gemstones such as

diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

. International mining companies dominate the industry in the extraction of gold and diamonds, with additional small scale mining operations scattered across the country. Tanzania is the fourth-largest gold miner in Africa behind

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

, and

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

, and in 2010 accounted for 2% of the world's gold output. The fuel mineral under extraction is

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon di ...

Tanzanite Tanzanite is the blue and violet variety of the mineral zoisite (a calcium aluminium hydroxyl sorosilicate), caused by small amounts of vanadium. Tanzanite belongs to the epidote mineral group. Tanzanite is only found in Simanjiro District o ...

is an exclusive product of the country.

References

External links

*.But also ''Tanzanite'' is mined particularly in this country. {{Mining in Africa Mining in Tanzania