Geita Region
Geita Region (''Mkoa wa Geita'' 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 Slovenia. for Slovenia at Geita Regio ...
in northwestern
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 ...
. The town is known for its gold trade. Geita, with a population of 99,795 (2012 census). It is located in the centre of a gold mining area. In March 2012 it became the administrative headquarters of the newly created
Geita Region
Geita Region (''Mkoa wa Geita'' 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 Slovenia. for Slovenia at Geita Regio ...
.
History
Geita first came into prominence as the site of a German colonial gold mine. A German gold prospector discovered the mineral in the early 1900s in the hills surrounding modern-day Geita town. This and other discoveries triggered a gold rush in the surrounding area, attracting German and native prospectors alike. The colonial government established a mine to exploit 'Bismarck Reef'. Mining activities significantly declined when Germany ceded control of its colonies to the British after their defeat in World War I.
Geita regained prominence in the mid to late 1990s when the Tanzanian government opened the mineral sector to foreign investment. A number of medium to large-scale
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...
houses, including Ashanti and
Anglo-American
Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...
, conducted extensive exploration activities in the surrounding areas. The most significant outcome of those activities was the construction of the Geita Gold Mine, now owned by
AngloGold Ashanti
AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a global gold mining company. It was formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloGold and the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. It is now a global gold producer with 21 operations on four continents. The company is listed ...
. The
Geita Gold Mine
The Geita Gold Mine is an open pit gold mine located in the Geita District of the Geita Region (formerly part of the Mwanza Region) of Tanzania. It is operated by AngloGold Ashanti.Rwamagasa and Matabe. These
gold rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...
es have attracted tens of thousands of prospectors from all around the country. Being subsistence miners, their activities are highly unregulated, resulting in dangerous mining practices and considerable environmental destruction, not the least of which are increased
mercury pollution
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver and was formerly named hydrargyrum ( ) from the Greek words, ''hydor'' (water) and ''argyros'' (silver). A heavy, silvery d-block element, me ...