Addis Abeba — Ethiopia has secured close to 100 million US dollars from the export of gold, silver and other precious minerals, ENA reported citing the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME).

The stated sum was secured from the export of close to 5.6 tons of ing gold, silver, tantalum and platinum concentrates and white marble, public relation service head with the ministry, Bacha Fuji told the state news agency on Sunday.

The head was quoted the minerals were sold in the world market over the past Ethiopian fiscal year by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and MIDROC-Gold, an Ethiopian private mining firm.

"NBE has exported 425.9-kgs gold produced by traditional miners while MIDROC-Gold has exported 3.1 tons of gold and over one ton of silver. MIDROC-Gold has also exported 78.6 tons of white marble," the official was quoted as having said.

Bacha said the ministry has been taking various measures to enhance the capacity of traditional mining and trading of precious minerals in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has recently introduced a proclamation to regulate the mining and trading of precious minerals, the news agency said.

The new proclamation is expected to help Ethiopia move towards making the sector more formal through the introduction of new law.