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GOLD OPPORTUNITIES.

Introduction.

Gold has shared the spotlight with diamonds as Tanzania’s principal mineral product since the early 1900s. The rate of gold production has varied considerably (Fig .13), and at times has been entirely from individual prospectors or artisanal miners working with hand tools, in the fashion of the ‘garimpeiros’ of Brazil and many other tropical countries. During the mid 20^{th Century, Tanzania experienced a notable yield of gold from mechanized mines until 1966 when the last mine at Geita was closed down. Since then, gold production was mainly from artisinal miners and production records were uncertain and subject to great variations. Recent economic reforms have given impetus to gold output, where new modern mechanized mining has started with the inauguration of Golden Pride Mine in 1998 at Lusu in Nzega. Other new mines came on stream as follows:}

Bulyanhulu Mine in 2000, Geita Gold Mine in 2001, North Mara Gold Mine in 2002 and Buhemba in 2003. Tulawaka Gold Mine started production in March 2005. STAMICO’s Buck Reef Mine in the Rwamagaza greenstone belt closed in 1991 due to logical problems. However, East African Mines has a joing venture with STAMICO to rehabilitate the mine.

All the opportunities involve varying degrees of technical and economic risk. The opportunities most highly rated are in the Table 3. Previous gold producers still considered to have merit are listed on the table below. Due to the increasing interest in gold properties,