Tanzania’s competitive advantages, stability, and law reform are attracting capital
Uranium shaping to join gold as a growth driver for the stable mining jurisdiction
President Samia Suluhu Hassan set an investor-friendly roadmap for the 2025-30 term
A major 2026/27 field season is looming at Madaba, in a neighbourhood already attracting uranium explorers, developers and producers.
Just as the US$1 billion Mkuju River uranium project in Tanzania aligns with President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s economic agenda, QX Resources’ (ASX:QXR) Madaba uranium project is shaping as a welcome addition to one of the nation’s least developed regions.
Madaba sits within the Luwegu Basin in southern Tanzania, an emerging uranium district attracting growing exploration interest.
Other companies like Gladiator Resources and Moab Minerals have also been active in the broader Tanzanian uranium sector.
But QXR remains the primary active explorer specifically targeting the Madaba tenements.
QXR follows an exploration trail that began with Germany’s Uranerzbergbau GmbH, which discovered the Madaba and Mkuju River prospects via airborne radiometrics and trenching back in 1979-1982.
East African Resources, which historically traded on the ASX, then acquired and held the Madaba project area, doing a deep dive into the data in 2009.
It was followed by private company Optimal Mining (formerly Uranium Africa) in the 2010s, with the baton now passing to QXR.
Unlocking prosperity
Tanzania is one of Africa’s fastest-growing nations for mining investment, ranking 34th globally and fourth in Africa in the Fraser Institute’s 2025 survey.
“One of the key areas of policy focus is promotion of sustained and shared economic growth,” according to Tanzania’s High Commission in South Africa.
“The 6th Phase Government is committed to pursuing pro-investment and pro-growth policies.”
Translation: President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took office in 2025, is in charge of the “6th Phase” and she’s wasting no time.
The phase is pitched as one of economic recovery, low inflation, democratic reforms, and accountability and covers the 2025-2030 term.
Tanzania’s mining sector exceeded the government’s revenue target of Sh1.2 trillion for the 2025/26 financial year.
The sector accounts for more than 10% of Tanzania’s GDP, although gold remains its leading mineral export.
Tanzania hosts deposits of gold, rare earth elements, battery minerals, gemstones and uranium. But it’s not interested in outsiders making a quick buck from near-term extraction.
The Tanzanian Government is in it for the long haul with a professional, well-regulated resources sector – and greater shared benefits.
According to Minerals Minister and presidential appointee Anthony Mavunde, uranium development is one of the government’s priorities.
Tanzania also has ambitions to develop nuclear power as part of its future sovereign electricity supply.
Precedent set
QXR’s Madaba project sits on the same geological street as the massive Nyota uranium deposit, which is roughly 250km away within the broader Mkuju River project.
Nyota hosts 152Mt of mineralised ore containing up to 72,200 tonnes of uranium metal, which the company says is equivalent to about 152 million pounds of U3O8.
Forging a path for the likes of QXR, Nyota is slated to become Tanzania’s first uranium mine and could establish the nation as a significant African uranium producer.
The Nyota uranium deposit within the Mkuju River project is a major sandstone-hosted uranium resource.
It’s one of the largest in the world and the largest in Tanzania – so far.
Nyota was initially discovered and advanced by Australian junior explorer Mantra Resources and is now operated by Mantra Tanzania – a subsidiary of Canada-based Uranium One (CSE:UUU) and Russia’s Rosatom.
A pilot processing plant was commissioned there in 2025 as Tanzania seeks to join the ranks of uranium producers.
To date, 2500 tonnes of ore have been mined and processed through the plant with more than 4000 samples collected for analysis, local media reported.
The Mkuju River project is located within the Selous Sedimentary Basin, part of the greater Karoo Basin, and is covered by a Special Mining Licence.
Auking Mining (ASX:AKN) also has some pretty handy tenements there, which Chinese interests are understood to be circling.
Future battery minerals
Invert Graphite (ASX:IVG) and Black Rock Mining (ASX:BKT) are also advancing growth projects in Tanzania.
IVG has just landed a maiden resource of 32.2Mt at 8% total graphitic carbon for its Kumba deposit, less than a year after drilling got underway.
The resource starts at surface, with about 97% sitting within the top 75m, lending itself to potential open-pit mining.
Invert Graphite’s managing director Andrew Lawson says the maiden resource confirms Kumba as a substantial, high-grade graphite system with a strong foundation for future growth.
“This Maiden Resource Estimate for Kumba is a standout result, delivering 32.2Mt at 8.0% TGC despite facing a short window for drilling post relisting last year, and doing so under budget, demonstrating the team’s ability to deliver as promised.
“Drilling is targeted to recommence in September, and our focus now shifts to upgrading the resource and collecting metallurgical testwork samples, as we continue to advance Morogoro towards development.”
The 386km2 Morogoro project is the company’s flagship play that’s prospective for high-grade graphite.
Surface grabs in 2022 graded between 5.7% and 30% TGC, while initial drilling in 2025 returned standouts like 33m at 9.99% TGC and 45m at 9.91%.
Meanwhile Black Rock Mining’s Mahenge graphite project has permits, debt financing, offtake agreements and strategic partnerships in place.
BKT is also working to lock in a project-level equity deal to fund its share of an estimated US$100m equity development requirement.
Are we there yet?
Korean industrial heavyweight POSCO (NYSE:PKX) partnered with BKT in 2021 to advance the Mahenge graphite project, on tenure about 250km west of the coastal port city of Mtwara on the Indian Ocean.
The Ulanzi deposit is BKT’s primary prospect at Mahenge. It contains one of the largest high-purity natural graphite resources globally and is open at depth and along strike.
The open-pit mine at Ulanzi is envisaged to be 2.5km long, up to 280m wide and up to 233m deep.
The early works program is almost done, with final earthworks and access road activities expected to be completed in the second half of 2026 after the end of the wet season.
“Crucially, securing the extension on our US$204m credit facility to late November 2026 provides the extended timeframe we need to finalise our remaining equity investment,” Black Rock managing director John de Vries says.
“Backed by our unchanged banking syndicate and our strategic partnership with POSCO, we remain firmly focused on reaching the deadline to achieve financial close and moving toward a fully funded final investment decision.”
Securing this funding could enable construction to begin and drive a substantial re-rating, according to Breakaway Research, which rates BKT a speculative buy.
Taking Tanzania’s temperature
Tanzania is experiencing a surge in investor appetite and GDP growth is projected at roughly 6%, according to the Tanzania Investment and Consultant Group.
The IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank all tip strong growth for the nation and a relatively stable price environment compared with its East African neighbours.
Global demand for Tanzania’s battery minerals such as nickel and graphite, as well as gold and uranium, continues to underpin exploration.
Tanzanian projects are also not bound to one side of the geopolitical divide, attracting debt and equity investors from east, west and non-aligned trading partners.
The new administration has also put a rocket under under logistics and transport to cut transport times and get major equipment from port to project.
Upgrades include a standard gauge railway and the Port of Dar es Salaam’s US$1bn overhaul to cut cargo times under a 30-year concession with DP World.
Laws mandate up to a 16% free-carried government stake in certain projects and a 5% local equity participation – all governed by the Mining Commission for no surprises.
Not wanting to fall into the “dig and ship” trap, the government is pushing for more domestic processing and smelting, alongside restrictions on raw mineral concentrate exports.
During a keynote at the Seventh Tanzania Mining and Investment Conference in June, Mavunde reaffirmed the push for minerals to be processed onshore before export.
What’s next
Focused on uranium, QX Resources is awaiting final approval from Tanzania’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
Once secured, it can start the planned airborne geophysical survey and finalise key baseline studies that feed into the environmental impact assessment.
The company has also confirmed that work on the Exploration Target by independent consultants MSA Group is progressing well.
The final Exploration Target report is anticipated in the coming weeks – a significant technical milestone for the Madaba project.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While AuKing, Black Rock Mining, Invert Graphite and QX Resources are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.
Originally published as Uranium and graphite hotspots are shaping investor-friendly Tanzania