Mining in Ethiopia

[1] The country has deposits of coal, opal, gemstones, kaolin, iron ore, soda ash, and tantalum, but only gold is mined in significant quantities.

[5] The Ethiopian Geological Survey of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) with assistance from UNDP and private companies have assessed the mineral and petroleum resources of Ethiopia.

The resources discovered in different regions of the country are mainly gold, tantalum, phosphorus, iron, salt, potash, soda ash, gemstones, coal, geothermal and natural gas, apart from many industrial and construction materials.

[4][6] Other mineral resources are platinum, niobium, copper, nickel, manganese and molybdenum; marble is found extensively in most parts of the country.

[6] Tantalum is used in making all electronic devices such as mobile phones, cameras, computers and so forth;[1] and its mining programme is the sixth largest in the world.

[8] To give a boost to the five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) for the mining sector launched by the government, incentives are proposed to be offered in terms of tax reduction from the present level of 35% to 25%.

During 2013, a draft document has been placed before the House of Peoples’ Representatives for approval so that the sector becomes more competitive vis-à-vis those offered by neighboring countries.

[8] On 30 August 2012 it was announced that British firm Nyota Minerals was about to become the first foreign company to receive a mining licence to extract gold from an estimated resource of 52 tonnes in western Ethiopia.

Lega Dembi mine has been plagued with extreme human rights violations resulting from improper disposal of toxic chemicals including mercury, arsenic, and cyanide.