[RwandaLibre] Rwanda Mining Revenue to Decline on Lower Tantalum Export Prices

 

Rwanda Mining Revenue to Decline on Lower Tantalum Export Prices

By David Malingha Doya and Saul Butera  May 23, 2014 9:21 AM GMT-0400  

0 Comments Email Print

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• LinkedIn

Save

Earnings from Rwanda’s mining industry will decline this year as lower metal prices will counter an increase in production, State Minister for Mining Evode Imena said.

The East African nation’s minerals exports will earn less than the $228 million generated last year, Imena said in an interview on May 21 in the capital, Kigali. He declined to provide a specific forecast for 2014 earnings. The volume of metals, including tantalum, which accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s total mining output, tungsten and cassiterite may rise to 10,000 metric tons from 9,000 tons, he said.

“The revenue from this year will not be good as those of last year unless there is a tremendous increase in prices in the last six months of the year, and we don’t expect that,” he said.

Rwanda is one of the world’s biggest producers of tantalum, a metal used in mobile phones and video-game consoles, accounting for about 15 percent of global production in 2011, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The price of tantalite fell to as low as $88 a pound yesterday from as high as $130 a pound at the start of last year, according to data compiled by London-based www.metals-pages.com.

Rwanda has been promoting that it produces conflict-free minerals as the U.S. prepares to enact a law forcing companies to disclose their use of metals from African nations, said Imena. More than 5,000 U.S. companies that use tantalum, tin, tungsten or gold in their products will by June 2 have to report whether they source from the Democratic Republic of Congo and nine adjacent countries, including Rwanda.

Conflict Mineral

For more than a decade, armed groups and some members of the Congolese army have funded their rebellions and enriched themselves through mineral sales. Rwanda is a primary transit point for smuggled minerals, U.K.-based advocacy group Global Witness said in 2012, even after it started tagging and tracing programs.

“Companies have been reluctant to buy tungsten from Rwanda because of reasons related to conflict minerals. Tungsten buyers have returned but with bad prices,” said Imena.

Revenue from mining should rise to as much as $400 million by 2018 as a tin smelter owned byPhoenix Metal Ltd. now being upgraded comes online probably next year. Imena declined to provide details on the production capacity of the facility.

The smelter, located about 7 kilometers (4 miles) outside Kigali, was built in 1980 by the Belgian government and sold to private investors in 2002, according to Phoenix Metal’s website.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Malingha Doya in Nairobi atdmalingha@bloomberg.net; Saul Butera in Kigali at sbutera2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.netSarah McGregor, Ana Monteiro

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-23/rwanda-mining-revenue-to-decline-on-lower-tantalum-export-prices.html?

SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
Google+: https://plus.google.com/110493390983174363421/posts

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9B4024D0AE764F3D
                                http://www.youtube.com/user/sibomanaxyz999
***Online Time:15H30-20H30, heure de Montréal.***Fuseau horaire domestique: heure normale de la côte Est des Etats-Unis et Canada (GMT-05:00)***

__._,_.___

---

Posted by: Jean Bosco Sibomana <sibomanaxyz999@gmail.com>

---

Reply via web post

•

Reply to sender

•

Reply to group

•

Start a New Topic

•

Messages in this topic (1)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
.To post a message: RwandaLibre@yahoogroups.com; .To join: RwandaLibre-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
RwandaLibre-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________

More news:  http://www.amakurunamateka.com ; http://www.ikangurambaga.com ; http://rwandalibre.blogspot.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-SVP, considérer  environnement   avant toute  impression de  cet e-mail ou les pièces jointes.
======
-Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sponsors:

http://www.rencontressansfrontieres.com
http://www.intimitesafricaines.com
http://www.foraha.net
-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-

Visit Your Group

• Privacy • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use

.

__,_._,___