New mineral discovery to benefit the economy

By ABELA MSIKULA

TANZANIA is set to reap economic benefits following discovery of Neodymium and Praseodymium (NdPr) magnets in Ngualla village-Songwe Region by PRNG Minerals Limited. The Company’s Chief Development Officer, Mr Lucas Stanfield said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the government will get 25bn/- (11 million US dollars) Corporate Tax and 7.8bn/- (3.5 million US dollars) projected royalties annually.

“We are waiting for mining licence while looking other resources,” he said, clarifying that, the Company will be able producing about 556,000 tonnes annually as raw materials, which will lead into availability of only 28,000 processed concentrate tonnes for exportation.
The next is mining activities, from the coming year with investment of 439bn/- (196 million US dollars), the Company’s Chief Development Officer told media practitioners yesterday in Dar es Salaam.
Titled ‘Ngualla Rare Earth Project’ the plan was estimated to last for 31 years and provide 372 million US dollars in total Corporate Tax and royalties over the life of the mine. Running costs’ estimation was 83bn/- (37 million US dollars) with power requirements of 42.3 Megawatts per year; he said, explaining that the power is to be produced by generators.
It was further noted that up on the Project take-off, about 600 Tanzanians will benefit from direct employments and approximately 3,000 from indirect ones. Commenting on NdPr uses, the Company’s Commercial Manager, Mr Ismail Diwani said that over 90 per cent of vehicle motors are composed from the minerals. He affirmed that NdPr demand is soon to be high given that UK and France are already on plan to ban sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 and fully apply Electronic Vehicle (EV) system.
Mr Diwani insisted that, over 90 per cent of planned electronic models will use NdPr permanent magnet motors. About 120 new electronic car models are in the design pipeline to 2020 and sales of EVs set to boom from 0.8m in 2016 to 14.2m by 2025.
“There is a revolution underway in the motor vehicle industry and Tanzania could be one of the winners. Car and truck manufacturers around the world are moving away from traditional petrol and diesel engines to the newer and more environmentally friendly electric vehicles,” reads part of the statement.