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China-Africa Trade Information Service
http://info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
（Muluken Yewondwossen）
After a decade of exploration and developement, Ezana Mining has became Ethiopia’s second major gold miner.Since this month, their Terakimti in northern Tigray region will start working
The plant is expected to produce 4.5 kilograms of gold per day. Besides that,Ezana has already finished a gold processing plant near the outskirts of Shire.
It is said that most of the equipment is imported from South Africa and Austria, and it will be installed by Mesfin Industrial Engineering,” a source at the company said. Both of them are under the Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT). The plant installation process cost 700 million birr and the installation work took 18 months.
Ezana’s official said they feel successful because of what they have accomplished. They added that the work has been done with local workers except for some mining support from foreign supervisors.
Ezana is the first company to discover gold in the northern region and signed a mining agreement in 2012 with the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Gold is one of the major hard currency sources for the country. There is an expectation that up to four new sites will be included in large scale gold production besides Lega Dambi and Terakimti. Artisan mining in different locations has contributed the most to the country’s gold production.
The mining and quarrying sector is highly underdeveloped and its contribution to the GDP was limited to 5.6 percent in 2014/15. Hopes are that mineral extraction will become 10 percent of the GDP within 10 years.
MIRDOC who was created in 1994, has major gold mining interests in Ethiopia and it is reported that MIDROC Gold Mine (a subsidiary of MIDROC Ethiopia) has paid the Ethiopian Government 100.1 million birr in royalties, the largest contribution of any mining company. Midroc Gold is Ethiopia’s sole gold exporter. Its Lega Dembi mine has a yearly average production of around 4,500 kg of gold and silver.
