TELF AG analyzes Tanzania’s role in the global raw materials scenario
The role of the mining industry in developing nations
The expansion of clean energy adoption in industrial applications holds the potential to significantly broaden the scope of various economies, fostering the gradual development of specific sectors that have long been overlooked. One of these is undoubtedly the mining industry, which, also thanks to the progress of the energy transition at a global level, is already becoming one of the primary cornerstones of the political and economic strategies of many nations.
This double opportunity, linked to the role of strategic minerals and their possible applications in the energy field, is offering various areas of the world the precious opportunity to achieve economic prosperity or at least a more advanced level of development that could allow them to establish themselves on the global stage, in some cases for the first time. In recent years, many African nations have followed a similar path, starting to valorize their mineral resources and offer them to the international market in an already processed form without limiting themselves to raw material export. These are precisely the years in which many states on the African continent are starting to equip themselves with the infrastructure and technologies necessary for the extraction and processing of raw materials, thus starting to give a precise shape to their extractive industry.
A new global player in the mining sector
From this point of view, one of the most active nations is certainly Tanzania, which for some years has been starting to establish itself on the global scene due to its natural geological riches and its declared desire to become an important mining hub in East Africa. This country, which has more than 60 million inhabitants, is attracting international attention due to its numerous deposits of mineral resources, particularly those minerals defined as “critical” used to create green technologies. In fact, in Tanzania, it is possible to find deposits of nickel, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth minerals, all mineral elements used by industry as a real engine for the great ecological transition underway and numerous other applications in other sectors.
The precise political will to emerge could make the difference in Tanzania’s path towards an increasingly evident global centrality in the strategic minerals sector. The country’s political authorities are reactivating the mining sector, particularly from the point of view of international agreements with other players in the industry, which had been blocked or pending for a long time. In this regard, it is unsurprising that an agreement has recently been reached between the government of Tanzania and three Australian companies for extracting graphite and rare earths. The latter represents a highly sought-after resource due to its numerous industrial applications, particularly in the automotive and permanent magnet sectors.
The number of projects currently under development in Tanzania, mostly focused on strategic minerals, could allow the East African nation to take on an ever-increasing role in the mineral production chain in Africa, also thanks to initiatives such as the one linked to the Lindi Jumbo, which could represent the country’s first modern graphite mine. Thanks to this project, which is still nearing completion, graphite could become the first resource in Tanzania to be involved in an entire production process.
