RESOURCES TO CHANGE LIVES RADICALLY

Coal mining is a capital and labour intensive undertaking, but it is considered a cheap source of energy for many developed economies around the world. PHOTO | FILE 

By Daniel Mbega, The Citizen Songea. For Emmanuel Kipande, 82, a resident of Liuli village, Nyasa district in Ruvuma region, who has never travelled by a train in his entire life, the construction of a railway line in Southern Tanzania was a big surprise.
The government has planned to construct an 860 km, $1.5 billion railway line from Mtwara to Mbamba Bay to the mineral-rich district of Ludewa – particularly Mchuchuma and Liganga. The Mchuchuma mine has an estimated 540 million tons of coal deposits while iron ore deposits at Liganga are estimated at 45 million tons.

However, many people in the southern regions are surprised why things have changed suddenly, while the area has been abandoned for nearly 52 years after the country became independent.

“A railway in the South? No-one, even the national leaders who came from this part of the country that some people once painted as a God-forsaken place, ever thought that it could have better roads, let alone the coming railway line construction. I pray to God to grant me more years so that I can at least board a train to Songea once in my life,” says Mr Kipande with enthusiasm.

Sitting under his favourite tamarind tree outside his house reading the Bible, Mr Kipande, who admits to have seen a train once at the Makambako Tazara station in Njombe region during his middle ages, confesses that the current twist of development in the southern regions is because of the natural resources that have been discovered.

“We have seen wazungu (white people) come this way, some are said to be undertaking mineral and oil explorations even along Lake Nyasa while the Chinese have more than helped us construct roads. We can now easily travel to Mtwara by bus. But if they are building a railway line, then it could help people from this part foster development. We need better infrastructure, let them extract minerals.”

However, the construction of Mtwara-Mbamba Bay railway line reminds Mr Kipande of the stories of slave trade in the nineteenth century as it will be built almost on the same route that was used by a notorious Arab slave trader called Jumbe Salim bin Abdullah, who took caravans en-route to Kilwa and Zanzibar.

“My grandfather told me that Jumbe had his headquarters at Nkhotakota, the main terminus coastal city in Malawi along Lake Nyasa. After capturing slaves in Malawi, he shipped them across the lake to Mbamba Bay before walking all the way to Kilwa Kisiwani and other East African slave markets,” he says.

The Mtwara-Mbamba Bay railway construction project comes almost 40 years after the completion of the 1,860km Uhuru Railway (Tazara) that was built by China as a $ 500 million turnkey project linking Dar es Salaam and New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia.

Reports from the Central Government say that the construction of Mtwara-Mbamba Bay-Mchuchuma railway is once again likely to feature the Chinese in helping open up development opportunities in the Mtwara Development Corridor that comprises Lindi, Mtwara, Ruvuma, Njombe, Iringa, Mbeya, Katavi and Rukwa regions that have a total population of 9,432,285 (21.6 per cent), and also boost trade links with Malawi, Mozambique and even Zambia, by reducing prices in the regional transport market and improving the economy.

Malawi mainly depends on two rail links to Indian Ocean ports – the 167 miles Trans-Zambezia Railway, from the south bank of the Zambezi to join the main line from Beira to Rhodesia and a rail link to the Mozambique port of Nacala; so the proposed Mtwara Port-Mbamba Bay link would be a welcome addition.

Reli Assets Holding Company (Rahco) managing director, Bernhard Tito, was recently quoted as saying that the company had floated tenders for potential investors to invest in the project via engineering, procurement, construction and financing, and the tender bids were opened since June this year.

“Tender bids attracted 12 companies but we have only short listed six companies,” Tito said, without going into details.

Tapping Mtwara corridor wealth will contribute a lot to economy

The Mtwara Development Corridor hosts sizeable mineral deposits and a number of foreign companies have undertaken explorations and some have acquired extracting licences on various plots, particularly in Ruvuma region.

The region is rich in mineral resources that include iron ore at Liganga, coal at Mchuchuma and Ngaka, uranium at Mkuju in Namtumbo district, and natural gas, oil, nickel and limestone in Lindi and Mtwara regions.

In the Selous Game Reserve, the World Heritage Site, building at the Mkuju River uranium mine in Namtumbo district has started this year under Uranium One company which is controlled by Rosatom’s Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) of Russia. Mkuju River Project could alone produce 1,900 tons of uranium per annum, thus making Tanzania the third biggest producer of the commodity in Africa.

Other probable roll front uranium deposits in the area are said to be located on the shores of Lake Nyasa and extend into the Ruhuhu River Basin and the Kayelekera roll front deposit.

The Ngaka coal field which is situated in the southern part of the Ruhuhu depression, just 32km south-east of Mchuchuma-Katewaka coal field, has a proven reserve of 97.7 million tons and 200 million tons of inferred reserve while the annual turnover is estimated to be at $3.4 million.

However, there are coalfields at Mbamba Bay located on the shores of Lake Nyasa across from Nkhata Bay in Malawi with a total reserve of 29 million tons. The project with proven deposits of 2.4 million tons would be ideal as a small-scale mining operation of some 75,000 metric tons per year thus generating an annual turnover of $2.7 million.

According to the ministry of Energy and Minerals, there is also a coal project at Namwele-Nkomolo in Sumbawanga District, Rukwa Region with 1.5 million tons of proven coal reserves and inferred reserves of 17.2 million tons that is estimated to have an annual turnover of $12.6 million

The proposed Muze coal-to-electricity project on the floor of Lake Rukwa has 3.41 million proven coal reserves and inferred reserves of 56.59 million tons expected to generate 300MW. The annual turnover is estimated at $120 million.

According to data from the ministry that was made available to this reporter, an open cast mine, crushing and processing plant to produce 10,000 metric tons a year of agricultural lime is to be built in Songea following the lime deposits found in the district where it is estimated to have an annual turnover of $10.5 million. Another lime plant is to be built in Mtwara region that will produce the same amount.

There is the Cement and Gypsum Board project in Lindi that involves mining and beneficiation of gypsum rock and setting up a gypsum processing plant based on gypsum deposits (CaSO4.2H2O) estimated at 5 million tons at Mbaru and Pindiro in Kilwa District, Lindi Region with the estimation of annual turnover of $20 million.

The data show that there is also the rare earth minerals project in Nkasi district, Rukwa region whose products have a specialized market in IT, TV, Satellite and communications as well as in sophisticated military defence projects like missiles systems. The estimated annual turnover of this project is between $30 – 40 million.

Will the ‘dragon’ spit fire?

Availability of power has been one of the thorniest problems in the Southern Highlands. For several years, the region remained in darkness but now the Chinese want to reverse the gloom.

Through Mchuchuma coal mining in Ludewa district, the government and Chinese investors are promising abundant supply of electricity to light up the villages and spur economic activity in Njombe region.

“Let’s wait and see what happens. I hope it is not the same old story,” says Juvenalis Haule, 47, a pub owner in Ludewa. He says he would want to believe the government was serious this time round to completely turn the fortunes of the area by exploiting the potential of Mchuchuma.

The Chinese have entered into partnership with Tanzania for coal mining to build a coal-generated plant in the next three years that will produce 600MW.

“Coal is there, but we don’t have capital and technical know-how to extract it. If the Chinese are coming, maybe we can achieve something from our resources.

“We’re tired of frequent blackouts that affect our businesses. But we want the locals to benefit first,” said Haule.

China’s Sichuan Hongda Corporation Limited (SHC) was announced as the firm that will run the mammoth project. It signed the development agreement with the National Development Corporation (NDC) in September 2011.

“The (electricity) tariffs are very high, we can’t afford them. Let another source of power come, maybe the tariffs will be reduced,” says Mathias Maliwa, 42 a businessman based in Iringa.

NDC’s corporate affairs manager, Mr Abel Ngapemba, said that the Mchuchuma coal-to-electricity project is expected to start producing 300MW by 2015. The Chinese intend to invest $1.3 billion to establish a three million-ton a year coal operation.

It is said that SHC will start with 600MW and then increase gradually to 1800MW. The project will construct a 220 kV transmission line from Mchuchuma to Liganga and 400 kV transmission line from Mchuchuma to Mufindi to connect with the national grid.

The mining contract has nevertheless attracted some controversy, with a section of opposition politicians citing the secrecy involved.

Kigoma North legislator Zitto Zuberi Kabwe (Chadema) is among politicians who support the $3 billion twin project that will see the extraction of coal at Mchuchuma and the iron ore mining at Liganga in Ludewa District.

Mr Zitto, chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, says the Chinese-Tanzania partnership could liberate Tanzania from arbitrary and frequent power outages.

These three coal mining mega projects, touted as the biggest electricity projects since Tanzania attained independence over 50 years ago, would have a combined total of 1500MW, according to Mr Kabwe.

The Ngaka Coalfields Project, located in Mbinga district about 250km on the Njombe-Mchuchuma-Manda road, which currently has 45 staff on the ground, could produce 400MW and has targeted an initial 200MW by about 2014 to 2015. Malawi has already requested for a contract to supply them with 150MW from this project.The project is being developed through Tancoal Energy Limited (Tancoal), a joint venture between Atomic’s 85 per cent owned by Tanzanian subsidiary, Pacific Corporation East Africa (PCEA), which owns a 70 per cent interest in Tancoal and the NDC, which owns 30 per cent.

Most people doubt about Chinese companies which are said to have poor records when it comes to delivering on commitments in Africa.