MULTIMILLION DOLLAR CERAMIC PLANT PLANNED FOR DODOMA

Deputy Minister in charge of Minerals, Mr Dotto Biteko (centre).

Chinese and Indian investors are planning to put up two multimillion dollar ceramic factories in Dodoma’s Itiso and Ntyuka villages respectively, expecting to commence export production by the end of next year.

Deputy Minister in charge of Minerals, Mr Dotto Biteko told reporters shortly after touring the two open mining pits at Ntyuka in Dodoma Municipal and Itiso in Chamwino district that the investors intend to set up their tiles facilities. While production at Ntyuka has mainly been targeting local consumers especially for kitchen and floor use, at Itiso the firm had sublocks since 2017.

The decision is a result of President John Magufuli’s indefinite ban on export of unprocessed mineral concentrates. “We stopped export of raw minerals as per the country’s new mineral laws. We want all investors to add value before they export ... this will retain jobs and improve the country’s economy,” Mr Biteko told reporters at Itiso open mine pit some 140km away from the municipal.

The Itiso Open Mining pit is a shared investment venture with a native initially owning 10 per cent for licence ownership and 90 per cent for Chinese investors. It had sufficient raw materials to set up a facility plant, according to the co-owner, Mr Sisti Mganga. It was not immediately revealed how much the investors will be commissioning to set up a classic plant, but the government authorities and investors said they were all discussing on the investment cost.

Mr Mganga told the Deputy Minister, “We want to put a state of the art facility which will be a leading centre of finished products. This plant will also be printing and labelling to ensure the resources become more beneficial to the community and the nation.” According to him, already the firm is constructing eight production lines and expects commercial production to commence in two years.

Before the export ban, he said production capacity was 40 marble blocks a day. Udbhav International Ltd Director, Sweekar Nayak whose company owns 70 per cent in Ntyuka based open mining pit told the deputy minister that they are ready to put up a plant any time from now.” The investor said the mine started exploration last year and it has been producing 2 cubic metres of slabs daily but it tar-gets to produce 10 cubic metres after commencing commercial production.

The mine supplied tiles at the new NBS structure being built in Dodoma. It has been selling between 300 and 400 slabs monthly. “We want to set up the factory that will produce quality tiles for domestic and export demands.

I can confirm to you that 90 per cent of value addition is done here, and in the extent of export, only less than 10 per cent is done to polish the products,” Mr Nayak said. Dodoma Regional Mineral Officer, Mr Silimu Mtingile said the two investors have all been licenced to operate. He said government authorities are working on the legal frameworks as firms work on the construction of the plants.

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