Ministry grants six large-scale mining licenses
Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) has granted the first of its kind large-scale mining licenses for six mining companies of gold, marble and bromine.
The licenses for these companies have been awarded by Takele Uma (Eng.), Minister of Mines and Petroleum on Thursday, September 30.
Kurmuk Gold Mining PLC, Etno Mining PLC and Oromia Mining Share Company are requested to extract the gold reserve discovered in Benishangul- Gumuz and Gambella regions.
Each company is supposed to produce 6226 kg, 1511kg and 84.5 kg of gold, respectively per annum.
Kripto Mining and Chemicals PLC and Bhumi Mining PLC, both registered in Ethiopia and owned by Indian investors are also licensed with large-scale marble production mining in Assosa Zone, Benishangul Gumuz region.
Annually, the companies will produce 27,680 and 25,085 metric cubes of marble, according to the statement issued by MoMP.
Ali Hamel Khadem Alghaith Alqubaisi is another company granted a license and became the first company in Ethiopia with a large-scale mining license to extract the bromine mine reserve located in Lake Asalie in Afar region.
The total investment capital of the six companies is $4.7 billion and they are supposed to create jobs for more than 1300 Ethiopians, MoMP said in a statement.
“The government has made legal and procedural amendments to make mining the second economically important sector next to agriculture,” said Takele.
Lelise Neme, Ethiopian Investment Commissioner for her part said that her organization has planned to accomplish better through providing greater support to companies in the sector.
