Business
Mining earns Rwanda $100m, to be given priority in 2009
Mining gold in Tanzania: The International Finance Corporation conducted a study of the mining industry in Rwanda earlier in 2008 that highlighted the need of the nascent industry both for investment and advisory services. Photo/LEONARD MAGOMBA
Posted Saturday, January 3 2009 at 11:29
IFC’s involvement in Rwanda’s mining industry won’t be its first in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2007, IFC invested $150 million in different mining projects in the region with $50 million options for equity stake and $100 million as a standby loan in South Africa’s Lonmin SA, the world’s third platinum producer.
Mining in Rwanda goes back to the 1930s. In 2004, the government passed a mining policy, and is currently receiving advice from the World Bank on a new mining law, that about to be published.
According to a survey last September by the National Bank of Rwanda in collaboration with the Rwanda Geology and Mines Authority, the assets of foreign investors increased from $9 million in 2006 to $2.09 billion in 2008, an increase of 32.2 per cent.
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