When the mineral resources of the East African Rift Valley are no longer just the starting point for exporting raw stones, a new industrial chain is quietly extending. Dongfang Casting and Forging spans mountains and seas, and is located in the Buswaji Special Economic Zone of Tanzania. With independently developed wear-resistant steel balls as the core, it fills the gap in high-end consumables in the local area and deeply embeds Chinese manufacturing into the texture of African mining.

Tanzania Landing Mining Consumables Factory

With the increasing popularity of mining development in Africa, domestic enterprises are accelerating the landing and layout of supporting manufacturing industries for African mining. Dongfang Casting and Forging Group will invest in the construction of a mining consumables production factory in the Buswaji Special Economic Zone in Tanzania, specializing in mining processing equipment accessories such as steel grinding balls. This project will help Tanzania promote the localization development of its mining supply chain and assist in building a regional core hub for mining manufacturing.

High quality products solve import problems

Anthony Mavunde, the Minister of Mines of Tanzania, recently held a discussion with Hou Songcun, Chairman and General Manager of Dongfang Forging Group, and the two sides conducted in-depth docking and communication on matters related to project implementation and construction. According to the project plan, the factory is located in the Buzkaj Special Economic Zone, with the core production of high chromium alloy steel grinding balls and various mining supporting consumables. These types of steel balls are the core consumables for ore crushing and grinding processes. Currently, 90% of these products in Tanzania's mining industry rely on imports, with an annual import scale of over 150 million US dollars. The new project of Dongfang Casting and Forging is equipped with an automated casting production line, which can increase the service life of the produced products by twice compared to ordinary steel balls. It can reduce the operating costs of mining enterprises by 30%, and has significant advantages in cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

China Africa mining cooperation continues to upgrade

The Tanzanian government has explicitly proposed to rely on local mining consumables production and construction, get rid of high import dependence, fill the gaps in the mining supply chain, and enhance the added value of mineral development. According to the local Mining Supply Chain Localization Act, the proportion of local procurement of mining consumables needs to reach 40% by 2027, and further increase to 70% by 2030. In the future, locally produced mining consumables can fully cover the production needs of large mines such as Barrick Gold and Anglo Gold, as well as local small and medium-sized mines. They can also be exported to African countries such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is expected that the market size of mining consumables in Africa will exceed 1.5 billion US dollars by 2030. Keywords: Tanzania, mining consumables, China Africa cooperation

In recent years, Chinese enterprises have continuously optimized their non mining investment models, gradually expanding from traditional resource extraction to diverse fields such as equipment manufacturing, mining operation and maintenance services, and industrial chain support. Relying on the policy dividend of localizing Tanzania's mining industry, Chinese enterprises have deeply participated in the construction of local mining equipment and processing industries with mature manufacturing strength and perfect industrial supporting advantages, promoting the upgrading of China Africa mining cooperation from single resource development to a new model of manufacturing collaboration and supply chain linkage.Editor/Gong Ziwei