Advisory and fund management group, MafAfrique, have committed to raising and investing up to USD 7 Million in Tankaz minerals, Tanzania to diversify its business from traditional mining and scale up its sustainable mineral production and mineral trading practices that is expected to grow the export market for Gold and rare earth minerals while creating jobs and opportunities. The advisory together with access to financing will allow Tankaz minerals that started operations in 2014 to scale up production of Gold in Tanzania and diversify into rare earth minerals trading across East Africa for the growing export markets of Europe and Central Asia.

MafAfrique with presence in Kenya, Romania and Zimbabwe, mainly target export oriented small to medium-sized enterprises specifically in three key sectors – mining, energy and integrated agribusiness across Africa typically advising and leveraging advisory business to unlock investment opportunities. The investment represents a major step forward in the company’s strategy to unlock the full potential of Africa’s small to medium sized mining companies, whilst generating employment and economic development.

“Our business model for the development of our Gold mines in Tanzania has been largely traditional however as new technologies emerges, mining regulations change over time impacting exploration activities as well as mining costs, we find ourselves increasingly exploring a diversified business model to minimize the impact on operating margins. This advisory and the funding will be used to acquire new technologies for processing tailings from discarded mines, working capital for new line of business – rare earth minerals trading across East Africa and undertake drilling to delineate additional Gold resources to expand the life-of-mine at the musoma project, positioning the business for future growth.” Said Mr. Galimov, Tankaz minerals Managing Director.

“We are delighted to work with Tankaz minerals as this initiative aligns well with our strategic agenda for Africa’s small – medium sized mining firms which is, adopting a sustainable model that improves the overall success of their business during times of falling metals prices by diversifying their business through reducing the cost pressure on traditional mining and enhancing productivity through new technology adoption. Emerging technological trends in Gold tailings reprocessing is gaining traction both for economic and environmental reasons and growing demand for rare earth minerals due to projected growth of the global electronics and arms industry, means enterprises can scale up their sourcing to meet the growing export through structured off take agreements with inbuilt mineral traceability system.” said MafAfrique Cofounder and Chairman, Byron Mudhune. “The current and proposed port and railway infrastructure developments linking Tanzania to the rest of the region together with the mining reforms in the country plus considering the country is a member of both East African and South African business community, is a clear indication of the potential to transform Tanzania into a trading hub for minerals.” he added.

In Tanzania, small and medium scale gold mining has gained considerable momentum over the last decades due to the high price of gold and several hundred thousand people depend on small and medium scale gold mining however the challenges such as bringing mines on standby back into production, volatile commodity prices, absence of available additional on time financing needed to maintain or expand mining operations and with such a long history of narrow vein high grade underground mining in Musoma, there are extensive stockpiles of what was considered, at the time of mining, sub-marginal low grade ore and mineralized waste rock in the form of tailings—mineral waste products— which are a major environmental concern, continue to face the sector. The initiative is expected to gradually address these challenges, whilst also sustaining the livelihood of other small scale and artisanal miners and workers within the Eastern and Southern Africa region which is endowed with significant volumes of highly tradable minerals.