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Tanzania is planning to increase its production of coal by more than three million tonnes annually as it rumps up its drive towards clean energy. Photo/SolarAfrica

Tanzania is planning to increase its production of coal by more than three million tonnes annually as it rumps up its drive towards clean energy.

The country made its plans public at the start of the year through the Tanzania Mining Commission (TMC) which announced that the country has already increased it coal output from 1.5 million tonnes in the 2020/21 period to 1.56 million tonnes by the second half of this financial year 2022/23.

TMC Executive Secretary, Engineer Yahya Samamba, said Tanzania earned 211 million US dollars from the 2020/21 production of 1.5 million tones. He also made it clear that majority of this output was for export with more than 800,000 tonnes for the export market and a little over 60,000 tonnes consumed locally.

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Notably, Tanzania’s coal is exported largely to India, Poland and the

South African coal exports to Europe surge, and shipments to Asia decline. www.theexchange.africa

The ban on Russian coal imports will further strain coal supplies and force European consumers to look elsewhere at a time when there is already concern about dwindling supplies of Russian gas and a severe energy crunch in the winter.

According to an article by Africa News published May 26, 2022, as Europe takes action to reduce imports of Russian gas, the continent’s leaders have been looking to Africa as an alternative energy supplier. New deals have been signed with Algeria, Angola, Congo, Nigeria, and others are thought to be on the way.

In a related article by AFP dated April 21, 2022, Italy penned a deal with Angola to ramp up gas supplies from the southern African country as it urgently scrambles to break away from Russian gas over the Ukraine war.

“Today we have reached another important agreement with Angola to increase gas supplies,” Foreign Minister Luigi Di …