[5] A 1937 report said it hoped to soon start crushing 500 tons per day, and could well become the largest gold producer in East Africa.

It had built housing, medical facilities, set up a private wireless station and subsidized a weekly air service.

Electric power was provided from wood gasification plant feeding a Crossley engine giving 2 megawatt capacity.

In the early 1950s, Geita employed about 2,000 men and produced more than half of the gold mined in Tanganyika, although this was much less than the peak production before World War II (1939–1945).

With the country's economic problems and international rise in gold prices, the postcolonial government lifted the ban in 1979.

But the opening of the mine also raised fears within environmentalists from Tanzania and Uganda that its closeness to Lake Victoria, 20 kilometres away, could cause further environmental damage to the already affected water system.

[10] Unlike the North Mara Gold Mine, where a spill caused extremely high levels of arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, chrome, nickel and zinc at the area around, at Geita the situation was found to be less acute.

[1] In March 2010, a gang of robbers stormed into the mine, tied up a security guard, seized his gun and stole 14 boxes of explosives.

The police later managed to arrest one of the gang members and retrieved 12 of the 14 boxes but the incident raised questions in regards to the security at the mine.