Some countries in the East African Community are richly endowed with minerals and the potential to exploit these delivers significant opportunities for service providers such as Vibramech.

The East African Community (EAC) is a regional inter-governmental organisation of six partner states, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

This article first appeared in Mining Review Africa, Issue 10 2018

South Africa-based specialist in the design and manufacturing of vibratory equipment used in the mining and mineral processing industries worldwide, Vibramech has over the decades planted its roots across Africa and has an installation footprint that extends into East Africa.

Recognising the potential the region offers, the company takes cognisance of the information made available by the East African Community (EAC):

Burundi is well endowed with deposits of nickel, vanadium, cassiterite, colombo-tantalite, gold, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper, platinum, hydropower, niobium, tantalum, gold, tin, tungsten, kaolin and limestone.

Kenya has four belts of minerals – the gold green stone belt in western Kenya, which extends to Tanzania; the Mozambique belt passing through central Kenya, the source of Kenya’s unique gemstones; the Rift belt, which has a variety of resources including soda ash, fluorspar and diatomite; and, the coastal belt, which has titanium.

Rwanda has deposits of cassiterite, a tin ore, which is a very important ingredient of electronics components. The mineral is also found in Walikale, in DRC’s Northern Kivu Province which borders Rwanda in the east.

Other potentially profitable minerals include wolframite, columbite-tentalite, amblygonite and tantalite (colttan).

Gold has also been explored in some parts of the country. Some semi-precious stones including tourmaline, topaz, corundum, chiastolite, amethyst, opal and agate have been discovered.

Tanzania has a wide variety of minerals including diamonds, gold, base metals, gemstones (including the unique Tanzanite) and a variety of industrial minerals (such as phosphates, mica, gypsum, limestone, graphite, quartz and vermiculite) that have a wide range of applications in ceramics, pottery, brick and tile-making, and glass manufacture as well as nickel, cobalt, copper, apatite, niobium, iron ore and coal.

Uganda also has a variety of mineral resources including copper, cobalt, tin, iron ore, tungsten, beryllium, limestone, phosphates, salt, clays, feldspar, diatomite, silica sand, glass, sand gravel, and construction materials such as granites and gneisses.

Vibramech has been supplying its equipment for over 41 years, and therefore has extensive experience in inter alia gold, diamond, coal, iron ore, manganese, platinum, chrome, nickel, uranium, copper, mineral sands and aggregate operations.

It is subsequently well positioned to serve the growing mining industry of diversified projects across East Africa.

As an OEM, Vibramech has purposefully designed high quality, reliable and robust vibrating equipment for the often harsh African operating conditions above ground, which are highly diversified from one country to the other.

It also has a flexible and practical approach to screen design, which enables clients to optimise the vibrating equipment geometry to suit their specific requirements, resulting in tailor-made equipment.

Visit Vibramech’s new website at www.vibramechglobal.com for an overview on how Vibramech can assist with your current and future mineral processing requirements.

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