Tanzania’s Gold Export Boom Creates Opportunities for Domestic Mineral Processing - Spherical Insights

AI desk brief

Tanzania’s gold export earnings rose to about US$5.63bn in the year to August 2026, up 30.2% from US$4.32bn a year earlier, driven by higher international gold prices and stronger export volumes. Gold now accounts for roughly 47% of the country’s merchandise export earnings, underscoring the sector’s macro importance and support for mining investment and foreign-exchange inflows.

The key operational constraint is downstream capacity utilisation: Mwanza Precious Metals Refinery can process up to 480kg/day, but was reportedly running at only 50-100kg/day in January 2026 because of insufficient raw gold supply. In 2025 the refinery bought 2.995 tonnes of raw gold and refined 7.429 tonnes for the Bank of Tanzania and other clients, highlighting the gap between installed capacity and feedstock availability.