The board of directors of State Mining Corporation (Stamico), a wholly owned government enterprise under Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals, has concluded a two-day visit to the company’s joint venture (JV) operation with rare and precious gemstone tanzanite miner and supplier TanzaniteOne Mining.

TanzaniteOne owns the mining licence for Block C – a significant portion of the only known tanzanite producing resource, located in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania. “We also own extensive prospecting licences for potential mining areas adjacent to this,” adds the company.

describes itself as the “world’s leading tanzanite mining company”, stating that maintaining this status requires constant evaluation and improvement of processes to ensure safety, profitability and social responsibility.

TanzaniteOne’s mining operation, which is based at Mirerani, in the Simanjiro district in the Manyara region, includes precision cutting and polishing facilities, enabling the company to monitor each step of a gem’s journey from mine to market.

The visit, which concluded on August 25, gave the new Stamico board members the opportunity to grow their knowledge about tanzanite mine operations, sorting procedures, monitoring and evaluation strategies. The board was also due to be briefed on the challenges facing the mine and to discuss solutions.

Stamico has three 100%-owned mining projects in Tanzania, the Biharamulo gold mine, the Buhemba gold mine and redevelopment project, and the Kiwira coal mine and power generation project.

Stamico subsidiary Stamigold operates the Biharamulo gold mine, formally known as Tulawaka gold mine, 160 km south-west of Mwanza in the western part of the Lake Victoria goldfield, in the Biharamulo district, in the Kagera region.

The Kiwira mine was commissioned in 1988 and includes a 6 MW power station used to generate power for the mine operations and for selling to State-owned power utility Tanzania Electric Supply Company.

Stamico intends to develop the mine and generate electricity in two phases beginning with the revamping of the 6 MW power station followed by a 200 MW power project.

The Buhemba gold mine project began mining between 1930 and 1970, when 350 000 oz of gold was produced at an average grade of 13.5 g/t gold.

Mining Weekly reported in September that October 15 is the deadline for expressions of interest in a proposed JV with Stamico for the processing of old gold tailings and the redevelopment of the Buhemba gold mine.

Stamico states in a tender advertisement that it is inviting sealed expressions of interest from technically and financially competent entities to partner it in developing and operating the Buhemba hard-rock resources, as well as processing old gold tailings and mineralised waste rock.

The 8.18 km2 property has potential for a 610 590 oz on-site hard-rock resource and a 50 000 oz inferred tailings resource.