Rwanda's mineral reserves present an economic potential of $150 billion (approx. Rwf186 trillion) that can be realised by employing modern exploration and exploitation techniques, the CEO of Rwanda Mines, Gas, and Petroleum Board (RMB) said.
Yamina Karitanyi was discussing the state of the mining sector during The Long Form, a weekly podcast of The New Times.
According to her, this refutes the claims that Rwanda is a resource-poor country, which is most likely based on the fact that it is compared to other large neighbouring countries but "it doesn't mean that Rwanda is without mineral resources."
"As history for many African countries, we have in the past neglected a very core activity in the sector, which is the exploration phase because this is what gives you the comfort to speak on the resources you have."
She explained that this was because exploration is a very expensive and risky endeavour which, for a long time, made it not attractive for investments, however, she noted that the institution has collected all exploration data since 1968 which brought confidence in large reserves across the country amounting to $150 billion.
"These are confirmed reserves that we have. This is what we know we have underground but there is tremendous work required to tap into it."
Rwanda's mineral exports brought in over $362 million and $241 million in the second and third quarter of 2023, respectively. The mineral exports include gold, cassiterite, coltan, wolfram, and gemstones, among others.
"Over the last seven years, we have tripled our export revenues," Karitanyi noted.
Rwanda's National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) has a bracket that aims at increasing and translating the mining into large exports. In this regard, the share of minerals as per total exports is expected to reach 49.6 per cent by 2024 from 32.9 per cent in 2017.
The sector is still faced with a limited level of production in terms of exploration and extraction due to the lack of modern equipment and techniques employed which pose risks to safety and environment conservation.
On-ground effect on productivity, the institution reported that only 20 per cent of minerals are recovered while the rest is lost due to artisanal techniques of extraction.
"We are increasing mining techniques which give better recovery of minerals. With the introduction of mechanical processing technique, a miner is now able to recover at least 40 to 45 per cent of minerals," Karitanyi said.
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A call to financial sector
Furthermore, Karitanyi called on financial institutions to open their financing instruments to the mining sector, despite the attached risk.
"Today, a concession has no real value attached to the reserves they have, which makes it very difficult for a bank to have a conversation with a miner and provide them with a loan. We don't have instruments in our banking sector that speak to the mining sector."
However, she noted that the mining institution is advancing in de-risking the sector by mapping out minerals available in different concessions and estimating their value, as well as expected revenue. This means that a miner will be able to present their license as collateral in a bank for capital access.
