TANZANIA'S mining industry is projected to diversify more from gold to other minerals such as coal, nickel and uranium by 2018, a departure from the current over-dependence on gold, a new report says.
According to British market intelligence firm Business Monitor International (BMI), while Tanzania's mining industry will experience stagnation over our forecast period to 2018.
This will be due to largely a result of minimal gold production growth, there are plans to diversify into nickel, coal and uranium production in the long term by the said year.
"Although gold is the current mainstay of the sector, there are plans to diversify into nickel, coal and uranium production in the long term," it notes.
The global report notes that Tanzania is home to significant deposits of coal, cobalt, copper, diamonds, gold, nickel, silver and uranium.
"The country has long been a producer of gold (and is currently Africa's fourth largest producer) and diamonds. In the long term we also expect coal, nickel and uranium production to become sub-sectors of Tanzania's mining sector," it noted.
The firm's report on the oil and gas sector recently noted that Tanzania has even overtaken South Africa in attracting oil and gas investments. It says that Tanzania, Angola and Mozambique are currently the most appealing African countries for oil and gas investments.
"The countries have a more appealing environment for investment than South Africa," says the report. The BMI Oil and Gas Insight report has it that South Africa has lost out in the league because oil and gas companies are holding back investments in reaction to the amended petroleum law.
Tanzania also boasts of niobium in Mbeya region, which, if opened in the next two to three years, the mine would be the fourth in the world.
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