Venture aims to step up coltan mining in Rwanda

By Hereward Holland

KIGALI (Reuters) - A joint venture between the Rwandan government and a Mauritius-based company is positioning the central African country to ramp up exploitation of coltan, a mineral that is crucial to the manufacture of mobile phones.

Gatumba Mining Concessions (GMC) will invest at least $2.5 million and build ten small processing plants over five years in a major step towards expanding Rwanda's nascent mining sector, which has been dominated by small-scale artisanal mining.

GMC Chairman Bruce Stride said the firm was also considering constructing a couple of "medium-sized" open pit mines, which would also produce tin ore and other minerals, if the international price for coltan improved in the coming months.

"Over the next five years we are targeting building ten plants, each with a monthly turnover of around $60,000 ... of which roughly $25,000 will be profit," Stride told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

PRICE RISE AWAITED

He said international coltan prices needed to approach $60 per pound -- up from around $38 per pound now -- for the proposed medium-sized mines to be economically viable. He said he expected that the price rise was "imminent".

Coltan, short for columbium-tantalum, is the ore which yields tantalum, a corrosion resistant metal that is critical for the production of microelectronic capacitors needed for the manufacture of cell phones, laptops, digital cameras and other electronic devices.

Coltan is mined across the border in Democratic Republic of Congo, where its extraction has often been linked to conflict and extreme human rights violations.