Minister's Message
The Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoMPNG) is oneof the Federal Ministries which is given the responsibility of theproper development of mining, petroleum and natural gas resources. Therole of the Ministry is mainly to generate the basic geosciences data ofthe country, to promote the mineral,petroleum and natural gas potentials of the country, to negotiate and issuelicenses to the private investors and ensure that they conduct mineral andpetroleum operations in accordance with their concession agreements. Ethiopiahas an ambitious target for enabling the mining sector contributes 10 percentof the GDP by 2025.
The exploration for the assessment of the mineral and petroleumresources has been carried out both by the Ethiopian Geological Survey and privatecompanies. These geological studies have come up with significantdiscoveries of gold, tantalum, phosphorus, iron, salt, potash, soda ash,gemstones, coal, geothermal, natural gas, other industrial and constructionminerals/ rocks in different parts of the country.
Gold has been produced from placer deposits mainly by theartisanal miners for several thousand years. There is also a large scaleprimary gold mining operation at Lega Dembi and Sakaro which produces about 5tons of gold per annum. This gold mine, which is owned by the private company,occurs in the southern part of the country hosted in the Southern GreenstoneBelt. Nowadays significant and well defined organic gold and volcanogenicmassive sulfide (VMS) deposits are also outlined by the private companies inthe Western and Northern Greenstone Belts of the country. There is a smallscale tantalum mining operation, called Kenticha Tantalite mining, hosted inthe pegmatite rocks of the Southern Greenstone Belt. Huge industrial andconstruction raw materials occur in various rocks varying in age fromPrecambrian to Recent in different parts of the country.
Ethiopia has a large potential for geothermal energy resource withseveral targets outlined within the East African Rift System. There are threegas field discoveries, called Calub, Hilala and Genale gas fields in the OgadenBasin in the south eastern part of the country. These gas fields contain atotal of about 4.6 TCF gas.
The mining industry in Ethiopia is dramatically growing with majorinvolvement of the private sector. The investment policy of Ethiopia isgenerally established under the principle and practices of a free market driveneconomy. The government has enacted a very competitive legal and fiscal regimethat attracted many local and foreign mining companies to involve in themineral operations starting from exploration to mining activities. These lawshave been amended so many times to make them more competitive and to createmore conducive environment to invest in the sector.
The investment in the mining sector is growing from time to timeand accordingly revenue generation from this sector is also increasing. Thegovernment of Ethiopia is committed to manage all necessary revenues generatedfrom the mining sector in a transparent and accountable manner. These incomesshould be published officially and used transparently. Therefore, the wealththat can be generated from the mineral and petroleum resources will contributemore for the development of the country.
Many foreign and some local companies have been grantedreconnaissance, exploration and mining licenses for gold and base metals,cement and ceramic raw materials, potash, diatomite, other industrial andconstruction materials.
The mineral resources of Ethiopia are yet untouched and so thecountry has sufficient potential to accommodate the interest of so many otherinvestors. Therefore, the Ministry would like to invite all interestedcompanies to invest in the mining industry of Ethiopia for the mutual benefit!!
Mr. Melese Alemu
Minister,Ministry of Mines, Petroleum andNatural Gas of theFederal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia