Tanzania Mining Sector Record 20% Growth in Q3 2016

Tanzania’s mining sector grew at a rate of 19.9% in Q3 2016 reaching TZS440b at constant prices, compared to TZS367b in Q3 2015 and a growth rate of 8%.

The results were included in a report recently issued by the Tanzanian National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), covering the country’s GDP performances for Q3 2016.

NBS attributes the growth to an increase in production of Tanzanite, salt, natural gas, gold, copper, silver and coal production.

Tanzanite production rose by 115%, from 1,386.18kg in Q3 2015 to 2,986.62kg in Q3 2016, while salt production went up 90%, from 22,375.4t to 42,449.24t.

Tanzania’s natural gas production reached 11,060m standard cubic feet (MMSCF) in Q3 2016, compared to 8,353 MMSCF in Q3 2015 (+32%).

During the same period, Tanzania’s gold production rose by 12% from 10,315.26kg to 11,592.51kg, while silver production went up 18%, from 3,663.6kg to 4,334.34kg.

Tanzania’s copper production increased by 20% to 3.5m t in Q3 2016, compared to 2.9m t in Q3 2015, while coal production rose by 10%, from 61,629t to 68,302.4t.

Tanzania Mining

Mining in Tanzania includes metals (gold, iron ore, nickel, copper, cobalt, silver), industrial minerals (diamond, tanzanite, ruby, garnet, limestone, soda ash, gypsum, salt, phosphate, gravel, sand, dimension stones and lately graphite), and fuel minerals (coal, uranium).

Mining and quarrying activities in Tanzania contributed about 4% to its GDP in 2015 with nearly TZS3.7t and accounted for 1.1% of total employment.

According to Tanzania’s Five Year Development Plan (FYDP) 2016/17–2020/21, the mining sector deliverables for 2020 and 2025 respectively are growth of 5.3% and 4.5%, % of GDP of 3.2% and 4.6%, and % of employment of 19% and 4.5%.