Small-scale miners employed by the Usangi mine owner feverishly search for tanzanite among the rocks. Photo © Hamza Kondo, Sena News Ltd.

by Hamza Kondo

USANGI, TANZANIA - A potential new source of tanzanite has been discovered in the village of Usangi-Kifinyu, Mwanga District, Tanzania.

Until now the world's only known deposit of tanzanite has been in Merelani, a village in the Arusha region of northern Tanzania. Usangi is also located in northern Tanzania, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Merelani.

Samples of rough tanzanite, as well as graphite and other indicators similar to those found at Merelani, have been found at one Usangi mine, gem experts say.

The Usangi find is the talk of the day among the gemstone business community, especially in the city of Arusha and among some Ministry of Energy and Minerals officials in Dar es Salaam, the country's capital. Accounts are mixed, though, with some parties claiming that tanzanite has definitely been discovered and others saying that it's simply too early to tell.

A detailed survey of gem miners, dealers, and government officials from Merelani and Usangi to Dar es Salaam indicated that only a few people have seen or collected tanzanite from Usangi to date, and there is no official or unofficial record of it in Tanzania.

The Usangi tanzanite story started in early 2000 when a local tribal doctor, Salum Juma, found a vein of unidentified gemstones while digging for medicinal tree roots on Usangi mountain.

Juma passed the information on to his friend, small-scale gemstone miner Sultani Hemedi Mavura, who began the work of figuring out what the gem was.

Mavura, owner of the Usangi mine, points to the mine's tanzanite rock vein at the author's visit in March 2001. Photo © Hamza Kondo, Sena News Ltd.

Now regarded as the founder of the Usangi tanzanite deposit, Mavura took samples from the vein the doctor discovered and sent them to Arusha for expert identification.

"In Arusha I gave the samples to a Sri Lankan gemstone expert, Krit, who wanted me to wait for a period of about one week," Mavura told Colored Stone.

After a week-long examination with his modern equipment, Krit determined that the gem was top-quality tanzanite, similar to the material coming out of Block D at Merelani, Mavura noted.

"The Sri Lankan managed to come all the way to Usangi, about 75 kilometers [47 miles] from Arusha, and wanted to see the exact place where we got the sample," Mavura said.

That was in February 2000. According to Mavura, once the Sri Lankan confirmed that the gem in question was tanzanite, news spread quietly among small-scale miners, dealers, brokers, and tourists visiting the Usangi area.

Several Tanzanian gem dealers who heard about the potential tanzanite find came to the area, examined the samples, and expressed an interest in mining in the area, Mavura said.

"[Those dealers] made several trips to the place, taking samples with them back to their homes, Arusha and Dar es Salaam respectively, to be used for what they claimed was more research," Mavura elaborated.

One of the dealers who has seen the material, Abe Latiff K. Suleman of Tuckman Mines and Minerals Ltd., confirmed in an interview that after spending millions of Tanzanian shillings on research, he is sure that tanzanite exists at Usangi.

"Usangi has big tanzanite deposits which have been proved by gemstone experts, and one big gemstone dealer has already applied for prospecting a big area on Usangi mountain," Suleman said.

He added that some of his friends also carried out research in Usangi which proved the presence of tanzanite in the area.

But it's a very sensitive issue, and there are those who say that the existence of tanzanite in Usangi hasn't been proven yet.

For example, the managing director of Paradiso Gemstones Co. Ltd., small-scale miner and dealer Phillip Mkenga, said that he visited Usangi last year, but found no possibility of the area producing tanzanite, only zircon.

His observations were the same as Arusha Regional Miners Association (AREMA) Deputy Chairman Hamisi Lioba, who said he wanted more research to be done, because what is being called tanzanite could actually be zircon.

Ministry of Energy and Minerals Arusha zonal officer Alex Magayane expressed mixed feelings. "The mere eye indicates the possibility of the area producing zircon or tanzanite, but this is not enough until scientific research is done to prove [it is there]. For our part, we sent samples to the Dodoma Geological Center for more research to get a true answer," Magayane said. "It is too early for me to say for sure that something is available at Usangi without an answer from the Dodoma geological experts."

While Magayane was very careful not to say for certain that tanzanite had been found in Usangi, Tanzania Mineral Dealers Association (TAMIDA) Chairman S. Sammy Mollel admitted to receiving news about tanzanite in Usangi early last year from some TAMIDA members. However, he wanted more research to be done, since no one has yet gotten a piece of tanzanite from Usangi.

Pieces of tanzanite rock vein as found at the new mine site. Photo © Hamza Kondo, Sena News Ltd.

"The problem of Usangi tanzanite is that there is nobody who could show you the product," Mollel explained. "They all would tell you about samples [but don't have anything from the mines], so please let's wait until we manage to get the real thing."

Mavura, who is also the chairman of the Usangi Mining Group, is currently mining around the village to establish the presence of tanzanite.

Some of the gemstone dealers who initially investigated the deposit had formed an agreement with him to supply tools and help to fund the mining operation, Mavura said. He added, however, that the initial support from outside gem dealers has dried up.

"You know, at first these people promised to support us with good tools to continue searching for the tanzanite," said Mavura. The dealers did give him some tools in the beginning. "But after some time we heard news from our friends in Dar es Salaam that our so-called friends [the gem dealers] were planning to apply for prospecting an area of about 9 kilometers by 9 kilometers [32 square miles], which meant to cover the whole forecasted area. We didn't believe it, but after [investigating] we found it was a true story."

According to him, on June 14, 2000, he had to write a letter to the commissioner of mineral trading to prohibit the government from giving primary prospecting licenses (PPLs) to any big company wanting to control the Usangi tanzanite area, denying villagers participation.

"Our letter has enabled us to get four PPLs with a total of 36 hectares, each with 9 hectares," Mavura said. However, at that point relations with the gem dealers worsened, and they withdrew their support.

The mining area is about 75 kilometers northeast of Arusha, within the same Usagara geological formation as Merelani. The only geographical difference between Merelani and Usangi is the height of mountains in Usangi, which are much taller than Merelani's rolling hills.

Usangi is one of a very few developed areas in Tanzania, with the entire village wired for electricity and telephone service. They are close enough to Mt. Kilimanjaro to draw some tourists, and if the area does have a sizable deposit of tanzanite, it could give jobs to thousands of youth and jobless people in the surrounding Moshi Township.

First, however, all parties agree that more research and exploratory mining is needed. Depending on how fast the research progresses - and how much money and equipment are brought in for the job - it could be a year or even two years before commercial production begins, assuming that the deposit is tanzanite and that it is as large as predicted. Until then, the trade will continue to rely on the trickle of tanzanite coming from the mines of Merelani.