The East African region is endowed with a variety of minerals that have the potential to catalyse faster economic growth for individual member states.
The bloc in general is rich in fluorspar, titanium and zirconium, gold, oil, gas, cobalt and nickel, diamonds, copper, coal, iron ore, among other minerals.
While the DR Congo and Tanzania are considered to be the richest in mineral deposits in the region, almost every country has its own which has a commercial potential.
Kenya has numerous ores and industrial minerals which are believed to be in substantial quantities.
These minerals include soda ash, fluorspar, titanium, niobium and rare earth elements, gold, coal, iron ore, limestone, manganese, diatomite, gemstones, gypsum and natural carbon dioxide.
While investors have been mining in some of the minerals in large scale, with artisanal miners sinking tunnels in small scale capacity, the country is yet to fully exploit the minerals leaving communities languishing in poverty.
The sector which is estimated to have the potential to contribute up to 11 per cent of Kenya’s GDP has been contributing a meager one per cent.
In 2019, the government placed a moratorium on the issuance of prospecting licenses to investors in what would define the future of the country’s mining industry.
The move came five years after the East African economic power house stopped renewal of licenses that were in existence.
At the same time, the government also revoked licenses of at least 65 mining companies. The licenses included 15 that belonged to companies that were in the exploration and mining of gypsum, according to a Gazette notice.
Thirteen were for precious metals, 16 were in the general mining industry, and nine were for industrial minerals, eight for non-precious minerals and four for gemstones.
In Kenya, licenses are considered to automatically expire after one year where no application for renewal has been made, while exploration licenses have had a maximum period of five years where the investor is expected to renew.
The 2015 move was meant to audit the list of investors who were in the business of exploring and mining in the country, which was then followed by the freeze on the issuance of license.
It paved the way for an aerial survey to map out the country’s minerals.
In October 2016, British and Canadian consultancy firms International GeoScience Services and Paterson, Grant and Watson won a consultancy contract to conduct a 30 months-long mapping.
The firms were to provide consultancy services for the development of specifications, terms of reference and supervision of the survey.
The National Treasury however recalled funds that had been allocated for the survey.
The government had earlier given China’s Geological Exploration Technology Institute (GETI) exclusive rights to do the geophysical survey with funding from Beijing, a move that attracted opposition from the Kenya Chamber of Mines, which said the deal amounted to ceding control of the country’s resources.
The mistrust of China’s prominent role in the survey led to a fall out which then saw the Exim Bank of China withdraw $65 million in funding, with the Kenyan government canceling GETI’s contract as it opted to go it alone.
The survey which started during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure, entirely done by government agencies and resources, has since been completed with the new government planning to lift the ban, signaling a new era for Kenya’s mining industry.
“We already have an initial report and data compilation process for the final report is at an advanced stage,” the country’s Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya told journalists at a press recent briefing in Nairobi.
The ministry is also coming up with an online cadaster before it begins issuing licenses.
While it allows online registration and applications, it is expected to help the government manage land and mineral rights, and provide a spatial view into cadastre data.
The portal will be launched in two months’ time, paving way for a resumption of what is expected to be a vibrant mining industry in Kenya.
Top minerals and sector contribution to GDP
Lifting of the ban on issuance of exploring and mining licenses is seen as a blessing to companies that have already invested heavily in the sector.
Among them is Australian company–Base Titanium which accounts for 65 per cent of Kenya’s mineral exports.
The firms commenced mining titanium ores in the country in 2013.
Its current mine-life ends in 2024 and it has been keen to extend its presence in the country, efforts which have been hampered by the more than five years of the licence issuance freeze.
According to management, the firm has applied for three prospecting licenses in three coastal counties in the country.
This includes in Kwale where it has its current operations, producing three key minerals–Ilmenite, Rutile and Zircon.
The firm has remained instrumental in the country’s mineral earnings with Kenya being ranked the third biggest titanium and concentrates exporter in the world, after South Africa and Mozambique–international trade data by the World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) shows.
Other top exporters include Ukraine, India, South Korea and Egypt.
Together with Tata Chemicals, which accounts for 48.9 per cent of sector revenues, the two holds 77 per cent of the country’s mineral revenue earnings.
The government hopes the new structures being put in place will help grow the industry and offer the economy more in terms of revenue and benefits to the communities in mining regions.
In 2021,the country’s total value of minerals produced increased by 33 per cent from Sh22.7billion in 2020, to Sh30.2 billion.
“This is attributed to a 31.5 per cent increase in the value of the titanium ore minerals fromSh19.5 billion to Sh25.6 billion in 2021,” Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says in its Economic Survey 2022.
The minerals played a role as the country’s total value of export earnings improved fromSh643.7billion in 2020 to Sh743.7 billion in 2021, translating to a 15.5 per cent increase.
In 2021, there was an increase in production for most minerals except Zircon, Diatomite and Rutile that reduced by 19.5, 17.8 and 4.1 per cent, respectively.
Total output of titanium ore minerals increased by 0.2 per cent to 4.4 million tonnes in 2021.
Soda Ash production in the review period increased by 11.4 per cent from 2.5 million tonnes in 2020 to 2.8 million tonnes in 2021.
Artisanal mining
As the country plans to open a new chapter in its mining industry, there are also plans to support Artisanal mining, or small-scale mining, which is done by local communities using traditional or customary ways and means.
It is estimated that about 100,000 people are directly engaged in artisanal mining in Kenya with about one million drawing their livelihoods from artisanal mining activities.
Most of these activities are focuses towards gold mining in the western region of the country, and gemstones.
Artisanal mining accounts for over 60 per cent of annual gemstone production in Kenya, where women and youth play a major role.
The small-scale miners have for decades been exploited by middle-men due to lack of proper trading channels.
They also face harassment, poor working environment, lack of proper protective gear and mining tools, a scenario that could change if the government goes ahead to put in place the planned changes in the industry.
The move could awaken the sleeping giant and put Kenya on a competitive edge on mineral export.
The country has four belts of minerals-the gold green stone belt in western Kenya, which extends to Tanzania, the Mozambique belt passing through central Kenya, the source of Kenya’s unique gemstones and the Rift belt, which has a variety of resources including soda ash, fluorspar and diatomite while the coastal belt has titanium.
Looking at other East African countries, Rwanda has deposits of cassiterite, tin ore, which is an important ingredient of electronics components.
The mineral is also found in Walikale, in DRC’s Northern Kivu Province, a part that borders Rwanda in the East.
Other potentially profitable minerals include wolframite, columbite-tentalite, amblygonite and tantalite (colttan). Gold has also been explored in some parts of Rwanda.
Some semi-precious stones including tourmaline, topaz, corundum, chiastolite, amethyst, opal and agate have been discovered.
Tanzania on the other hand has a wide variety of minerals including diamonds, gold, base metals, gemstones (including the unique Tanzanite) and a variety of industrial minerals such asphosphates, mica, gypsum, limestone, graphite, quartz and vermiculite, that have a wide range of applications in ceramics, pottery, brick and tile-making, and glass manufacture as well as nickel, cobalt, copper, apatite, niobium, iron ore and coal.
Uganda has copper, cobalt, tin, iron ore, tungsten, beryllium, limestone, phosphates, salt, clays, feldspar, diatomite, silica sand, glass, sand gravel, and construction materials such as granites and gneisses.
Burundi is endowed with deposits of nickel, vanadium, cassiterite, colombo-tantalite, gold, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper, platinum, hydropower, niobium, tantalum, gold, tin, tungsten, kaolin and limestone.
In South Sudan, previous geological studies and prospecting have uncovered rich deposits of major metals, precious stones, energy minerals, and industrial materials including gold, copper, zinc, lead, rare earth, uranium, manganese, iron, marble/dolomite, and diamonds.
The DRC has substantial untapped gold, cobalt, and high-grade copper reserves, but equally significant security risks accentuated by a lack of robust infrastructure.
Cobalt, one of the key metals to produce electric vehicles, places the DRC in a strategic position for the energy transition.
Gaining from these minerals will depend on how governments, in partnership with the private sector, will lay ground for their exploitation.
