Ministry Issues Four Mining Licenses to Private Investors

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia has issued mining licenses to four foreign and local companies to produce gold, bromine, granite, and coal minerals.

This comes a month after the Council of Ministers approved the four mining deals, granting the Ministry of Mines (MoMs) to issue licenses to the companies.

On Thursday, Minister of Mines Habtamu Tegegn signed the agreements with the executives of each private firm at the Ministry’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Among the four, Jereh Chemical Industrial Plc, and Rafiq Husni Faris Alqab are owned by foreign investors. The other two – Sequoia Mining and Processing Plc, and Oromia Mining S.C. – are domestic companies.

In a statement, the Mining Ministry said the companies have the required financial and technical capacities to start developing their respective mining projects.

The private firms with a combined investment capital of three billion Birr will develop Bromine, Gold, Coal, and Granite mining projects.

The investments, authorities say, would boost domestic industrial inputs production, foreign exchange earnings, and job creation.

Jereh Chemical Industrial Plc, a Chinese firm registered in Ethiopia, will invest close to 40 million US Dollars to develop a Bromine mining project and start production.

Rafiq Husni Faris Alqab, a Jordanian firm, will also produce granite in a project, outlying over a million US Dollars on the mining project.

Meanwhile, Oromia Mining invests the highest among the two domestic companies that secured the mining licenses on Thursday. It will invest more than develop a gold mining project, investing over 222 million Birr.

Sequoia Mining and Processing Plc will start producing coal, investing more than 600,000 Birr in the mining project.

The newly licensed mining companies are expected to create more than 280 permanent job opportunities, per MoM.