Tulawaka Gold Mine was a combined

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

and

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

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 met ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

located in the

Biharamulo Biharamulo is a town in northwestern Tanzania. It is the district headquarter of Biharamulo District. Biharamulo used to be a German administrative centre in colonial times. Biharamulo Game Reserve is located north of the town. History The town ...

district, in the

Kagera Region Kagera Region (''Mkoa wa Kagera'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Netherlands. Kagera Region is borde ...

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 ...

. It is operated by

African Barrick Gold Acacia Mining (formerly African Barrick Gold plc) is a gold mining business operating in Tanzania, with exploration properties in Kenya, Burkina Faso and Mali. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and is ...

, who owned 70% of the mine. The remaining 30% was owned by ''MDM Mines''.African Barrick Gold website: Tulawaka Gold Mine
accessed: 22 July 2010 It was one of four gold mines African Barrick Gold, a subsidiary of

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...

, owns in Tanzania, the other three being Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi and North Mara. The mine ceased operation in 2013.

Description

Gold mining in Tanzania in modern times dates back to the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

colonial period, beginning with gold discoveries near

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...

in 1894. The first gold mine in what was then

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

, the Sekenke Mine, began operation in 1909, and gold mining in Tanzania experienced a boom between 1930 and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. By 1967, gold production in the country had dropped to insignificance but was revived in the mid-1970s, when the gold price rose once more. In the late 1990s, foreign mining companies started investing in the exploration and development of gold deposits in Tanzania, leading to the opening of a number of new mines.Tanzania Mining History
tanzaniagold.com, accessed: 24 July 2010 The original discovery of the deposit at the Tulawaka mine was in 1998 with Barrick acquiring the project, alongside Buzwagi, as part of its acquisition of Pangea Goldfields Inc. in 2000. African Barrick Gold assumed ownership of the mine in 2010. The Tulawaka mine operated from 2005 through to H1 2013 initially as an open pit operation, subsequently transitioning to an underground mine. Over that time the mine produced nearly 1Moz of gold, nearly double the original feasibility study estimates. The mine is now in the process of being closed which ultimately could involve the removal of all mine infrastructure and the environmental rehabilitation of the area. Discussions with the Tanzanian Government remain ongoing as to the final closure plan.

References

External links

African Barrick Gold website

''Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States website'' {{Gold mines in Tanzania Barrick Gold Gold mines in Tanzania Surface mines in Tanzania Underground mines in Tanzania Buildings and structures in the Kagera Region 2005 establishments in Tanzania