The Kirondatal Gold Mine (german: Kirondathal, "Kironda Valley") was a

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 me ...

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 ...

in the

Singida Region Singida Region (''Mkoa wa Singida'' in Swahili) is one of the regions of Tanzania. The regional capital is the municipality of Singida. The region is bordered to the north by Shinyanga Region, Simiyu Region and Arusha Region, to the northeast b ...

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 mine closed in 1950 and exploration rights in the area of the old mine now lay with Barrick Gold, through its subsidiary, ''Sekenke Exploration Limited'', while the wider area around the mine is under exploration by ''Currie Rose Resources Inc''.Sekenke Tanzania
Currie Rose Resources Inc. website, accessed: 25 July 2010
Currie Rose Resources Inc. website, published: 3 February 2009, accessed: 25 July 2010

History

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 **Ge ...

colonial period, beginning with gold discoveries near Lake Victoria in 1894. Gold mining at Kirondatal however is said to predate this era, having been carried out by

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

traders in pre-colonial times. The nearby Sekenke Gold Mine became the first gold mine in Tanganyika, when it began operation in 1909, after gold having been discovered there in 1907.IRAMBA - SEKENKE GREENSTONE BELT
accessed: 25 July 2010 Kirondatal was opened considerably later, in 1930. While Sekenke became the largest single producer of gold when gold mining in the country experienced a boom between 1930 and the Second World War, the Kirondatal mine, active from 1934 to 1950, produced just 7,267 ounces of gold.
tanzaniagold.com, accessed: 24 July 2010 The Kirondatal mine closed in 1950, having produced an average grade of 9.0 g/t of gold in its 16 years of operation. By 1967, gold production in Tanzania 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. Kirondatal however was not reopened.

References

External links

Sekenke claim map

''Secretariat of the

African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) is a group of countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. Formerly known as African, Caribbean and Pacific Group o ...

website'' {{Gold mines in Tanzania Gold mines in Tanzania Buildings and structures in the Shinyanga Region Barrick Gold Tanganyika (territory)