ZANZIBAR: ZANZIBAR President Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi has urged investors to invest in manufacturing industries which use critical minerals like graphite, lithium and nickel as raw materials.
Dr Hussein notified investors in his statement read by Zanzibar Deputy Speaker Ms Mgeni Hassan Juma during the closing ceremony of the Tanzania Mining and Investment Conference 2024 on Thursday in Dar es Salaam.
She said it is high time now for the country to have manufacturing industries producing end user products from critical minerals by considering the fact that Tanzania is endowed with all the resources.
“Intensive investment on value addition is needed for us to reap more benefits from our precious resources as our country is lucky to have abundant critical minerals and rare earth elements,” Ms Hussein said.
She added: “we must ensure we build industries, which will produce high end user products,” She detailed that for example graphite can be used in manufacturing batteries for e-vehicle amid the soaring global demand of shifting to renewable energy.
Highlighting the benefits of having the manufacturing industries in the country, she said Tanzania is poised to create more employment opportunities, boost innovation, trade and the country’s economic growth at large.
Her call came in the wake of the global transition to green energy whereby many cars are being switched to electricity from using fossil fuels which emit greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide.
ALSO READ: PM: Future of extractive industry promising
Today, the demand of batteries worldwide is on the rise amid scarcity of the critical minerals which Tanzania is lucky to possess.
This year’s mining conference was themed “Mineral Value Addition for Socio-economic Development”. Dr Hussein assured participants of the conference that the government will consider their recommendations for further upgrading the country’s extractive sector.
The event brought together over 1,500 mining stakeholders from within the country, Africa and beyond, taking onboard representatives from major mineral conglomerates such as Barrick Gold Corporation, Sotta Mining and Anglo-Gold Ashanti.
It also involved various African minerals ministers, academics, researchers, representatives from international institutions and diplomats stationed in Tanzania to share experience regarding the mining sector and unlock challenges in bid of realising the extractive sector’s fullest potentials.
In another development, he urged small scale miners to continue using geological information provided by the Geological Survey of Tanzania (GST) which are vital in ensuring they invest in the right place with potential mineral deposits for them to get desirable returns.
