American envoy advocates for value addition of Tanzania's strategic minerals

Dar es Salaam. The US Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Michael Battle, has said Tanzania has the right, the responsibility and the obligation to demand that any country extracting its minerals provide value-added productivity to create wealth in Tanzania for its citizens.

This is the only way, he noted, that Tanzania can get returns on investments in the sector.

He made the comments on Thursday, May 16, during celebrations to mark the 15th anniversary of Pula Group’s presence in Tanzania.

“The government has the opportunity not to ask or request but to demand companies in the mining sector add value to the minerals extracted before exporting them so that the worth of the precious stones can be felt right here,” he stressed.

He said the critical minerals that Tanzania has been blessed with are necessary in the mitigation of climate change.

“I used to say to my students that if you want to be important, become necessary because it means the people and the world cannot make it without you,” he said, noting that Tanzania was important for the future of the world.

The minister of Minerals, Antony Mavunde, echoed the US envoy, stressing that the government's stance is that all strategic minerals must have added value in Tanzania so that the citizens can benefit in terms of revenue and employment.

Exporting raw materials, Mr Mavunde added, means taking away jobs from Tanzanians.

"The world is moving towards net zero emissions by 2050; the only way is to come up with clean energy, and Tanzania has such raw materials in abundance,” he said.

According to him, some companies have already signed contracts for graphite and rare earth minerals in Songwe, and they expect that soon there will be the construction of a large mineral processing plant in Kahama.

Kahama’s envisaged multi-metals refinery facility, he said, will be able to produce the final product that, when put into an electric car battery, allows the car to run continuously without adding value elsewhere.

“Every company coming into the country must have a value-added plan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Mary Stith, Pula’s president, said her company is in three countries now, and that number will grow to five before the end of the year.

“We are bullish on Africa. Our 15th year in business is shaping up to be our best year,” she said.

The Pula Group is based in Los Angeles, the US, and has operations in Dar es Salaam and Ruangwa (Tanzania), Johannesburg (South Africa), and Maputo (Mozambique).

The Pula Group invests in high-value opportunities in democratic countries in Africa, and its current priority is establishing Africa as a sustainable mining and processing hub for clean energy transition, simultaneously achieving Africa’s and the world’s development goals.

She said the Pula Tanzania graphite project ranks among the top 10 graphite projects in the world based on the metrics of mining.com, an online industry publication.

Ambassador Stith was recently cited in The Africa Report as one of the top 20 North American new players in the African mining sector.