Tanzania's peace offering to graphite industry

• Ecograf benefits from Tanzania's peace offer to the graphite industry

Ecograf benefits from Tanzania's peace offer to the graphite industry

Ore from the Epanko graphite project; Photo: EcoGraf Ltd.

The international industry service Roskill is finally measuring tailwind for graphite projects in Tanzania after the government there published new regulations for the export of natural graphite concentrate.

After several years of turbulence, the new Mining Ordinance 2020 is an offer of peace to industry. The most important messages are clarity and reliability, because the new regulations do not change the minimum content of 65% for the total graphite content (TGC) nor the payment of license fees as an export condition.

For a number of developers of natural flake graphite projects in the country, the new regulations represent an important course for long-term growth and stability. In particular, access to long-term capital could improve due to the new course of the Tanzanian government. Of which could be particularly Ecograf Ltd. (ASX: EGR; FRA: FMK) with its well advanced Epanko project. The market seems to be playing this scenario: The price of Ecograf has risen from 0.08 AUD on September 8th to 0.17 AUD.

The Tanzanian mining sector has suffered significantly in recent years as the government tightened controls and changed the rules on corporate ownership. In addition, higher export tariffs were decided and even the revocation of mining licenses was temporarily considered. The mining licenses were temporarily suspended from July 2017 until the tax and regulatory system was fundamentally revised and a new mining commission could be set up. Changes included requiring the state to own at least 16% of mining projects while increasing export tariffs. Mining licenses for foreign graphite developers were only granted again from September 2018.

According to Roskill's observations, investments in new graphite mining projects have since slowly returned to Tanzania, driven by a stabilizing political situation, as well as increasing Chinese demand and the success of natural graphite projects in other African countries.

[Source: https://goldinvest.de/greenmining/2...anias-friedensangebot-an-die-graphitindustrie]