BOT GOVERNOR LAUDS STAMICO FOR GOLD REFINERY
He
said this after visiting the gold refinery, Mwanza Precious Minerals Limited in
Mwanza city on Friday, where he witnessed the developments of the plant
including trial production which started on April 21, 2021.
“This
is miners, gold dealers as well as other stakeholders in the sector. The envisaged
dream for Tanzania to stop exporting raw gold is certainly coming to pass”, Prof.
Luoga said.
The
BoT Governor expressed delight to hear that the refinery is capable of
extracting other valuable minerals from the gold concentrates.
“Given
the production capacity of this plant, I believe that it will be able to refine
all locally mined gold as well as those from neighbouring countries. These will
bear the originality mark from Tanzania, and hence promote Tanzania overseas,” the
Governor said.
Mwanza
Precious Minerals Limited is jointly owned by Stamico (25 per cent) and two
foreign companies, ROZZELA General LLC of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) and ACME Consultant Engineers PTE Limited from Singapore (RGTACE), which
jointly own 75 per cent.
Acting
Managing Director of Stamico Dr. Venance Mwasse told Governor Luoga that “this
joint venture and the shares of Stamico will continue increasing at the rate of
5 per cent and after 15 years, the state-owned mining company will have 51 share
reducing those of foreign companies to 49 per cent.
Stamico
will also be getting 2.5 per cent from total sales as management fee.
The
refinery started trial operations on April 21, 2021. It can refine 480 kilogrammes
per day at the 999.9 purity and becomes one of the biggest gold plants in
Africa.
Dr.
Mwasse mentioned the benefits of the refinery as including increased revenue to
government through inspection fees, local government levies, generation of
employment, technology transfer and reduction of gold smuggling.
Also,
other minerals could be extracted and given value and the Bank of Tanzania will
be able to start keeping gold as one of its reserves as provided for by laws of
the land. Governor Luoga who was accompanied by other BoT officials, urged the refinery
to acquire the accreditation certificate to enable the Bank to start buying the
refined gold and making it part of its foreign reserves.
The
refinery is strategically located in the gold-rich zone as the precious metal
is found in Geita, Mara, Shinyanga and Mwanza regions. The plant is expected to
refine gold from small and big gold miners as well as those which are being
confiscated by the government and those from neighbouring countries through
gold dealers.
In
addition to increasing revenue, the refinery will make Tanzania one of the
exporters of refined gold.
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