Tanzania’s Mining Model Is Starting to Pay Off
Asia Spot LNG Prices Hit 5-Month High as Hormuz Blockage Drags On Gulf producers are accelerating alternative… Cyril Widdershoven is a senior maritime, energy, and geopolitical analyst and Senior Advisor at Blue Water Strategy, specialising in the strategic intersection of shipping, ports,… In 1967, a Maasai herder called Jumanne Mhero Ngoma stumbled across a clump of unusual violet crystals in the Mereli Hills near the Tanzanian city of Arusha.
For his discovery, Ngoma was awarded 50,000 shillings – about $22 in today’s money.
However, the rights to sell the mineral were awarded to Henry B.
Platt, vice president of the American jeweller Tiffany and Co and the great-grandson of its founder, Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Platt named the stone ‘Tanzanite’ and boasted in a marketing campaign that the jewel could only be found in two places: Tanzania and Tiffany’s.
Between 1967 and 1971, an estimated 2 million carats of Tanzanite were mined in Tanzania, sold almost exclusively by Tiffany’s.
Today those stones could be worth up to $1.2 billion.
The story of Tanzania’s mineral wealth being siphoned off by external agents is not unique in Africa.
What is interesting is how the country is rebalancing the odds in favor of ordinary Tanzanians.
Over the past two decades, Tanzania's mining industry has undergone not only rapid growth but major diversification.
In the mid-2000s, minerals overtook tourism as Tanzania’s leading source of foreign currency.
Since 2021, mining-related tax and royalty revenue has more than doubled.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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