OVER 1,000 villagers in Ulanga District, Morogoro Region are sharing out benefitting from an investor’s 14.6bn/- issued in compensation after agreeing to shift so that graphite mining can start.
Faru Graphite Corporation (FGC) chief executive officer Alimiya Osman said the beneficiaries are Mdindo, Kisewe, Makanga and Nawenge villagers, with compensation being done along with the construction of 300 houses for resettling people at Ndoto Yetu in Idenke area, largely within Mdindo village.
At a function to roll off compensation payments to residents touched by the Mahenge-Ulanga project, set to take three days, appealing to the residents to use the funds for meaningful economic projects. This will improve individual wellbeing and community prosperity as a whole, he stated.
So far the project has used up 70bn/- ($39m) and projected take up 290bn/- by the time it is completed, yielding 5.1trn/- ($2.2bn) earnings per year, he stated, noting that international metallurgical laboratories say the graphite there is among the best ore worldwide, with 212m tonnes reserves of 7.8 measure on the trading card grading method, and 70m tonnes of 8.5 grading of the same measure chiefly used in Australia.
The project area has 212m tonnes in graphite reserve likely to be exhausted in 27 years, an average of 340,000 tonnes output annually, he stated.
Four phases are projected, the first targeting an average of 83,000 tonnes per year, growing to 340,000 tonnes per year, making it a ranking graphite project in Africa and around the world, he explained.
The government holds 18 per cent shares in the project while Black Rock Mining of Australia has 82 per cent shares, a project that is expected to make heavy direct contributions to the Treasury via various taxes, levies and dividends. It will greatly benefit the surrounding communities in regular and irregular jobs, he stated.
Beneficiaries marveled at the sums they were receiving seldom touching up to one million shillings in their lives, and now being paid in multiples of millions of shillings.
Ulanga MP Salum Almas told the residents that the firm will not make everyone a rich person, but enable them to pursue own economic wellbeing, urging the firm to observe bylaws governing investment by ensuring that people in the vicinity of the mine have better access to jobs there.
Ulanga district commissioner, Ngolo Malenya said at the event that those receiving compensation need to exercise great care with the money for the benefit of their families, by initiating viable economic projects.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan addresses the ordinary meeting of Heads of the East African Community partner states held in Arusha city yesterday. Right is Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Photo: State House
chief executive officer Ruth Zaipuna.
In Tanzania still about 70 to 80 per cent labour is absorbed in this sector. Agricultural progress permits the shift of manpower from agricultural to non-agricultural sector.
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