Tanzania presses Mantra to speed up $1.2bn Mkuju River uranium mine

Tanzania's deputy minister for minerals, Dr Steven Kiruswa, has pressed Mantra Tanzania Limited, the Rosatom-backed developer of the Mkuju River uranium project in the country's south, to speed up financing and implementation of the long-delayed mine. "For the people of Namtumbo and the nation at large, this project represents opportunity, employment and long-term economic growth," Kiruswa said.

A project years in the making

Mkuju River, in Ruvuma region, holds one of Africa's largest uranium resources but has been stalled for years by weak uranium prices and financing hurdles. President Samia Suluhu Hassan officially launched construction of a pilot uranium processing plant at the site in July 2025, a symbolic restart after years of dormancy, with Mantra — a subsidiary of Rosatom's Uranium One Group — now working to advance the main industrial complex.

Financing talks and a ticking clock

Mantra is in discussions with Russian financial institutions as well as Tanzanian banks CRDB and NMB to fund the project, but lenders have flagged concerns about committing capital given that Mkuju River's current mining licence expires in April 2028. Resolving that uncertainty is likely to be a precondition for unlocking the financing needed to build a mine expected to produce about 3,000 tonnes of uranium a year.

What it would mean for Tanzania

Once operational, Mkuju River is expected to create more than 4,000 direct jobs and to generate indirect economic benefits for an estimated 21,000 households in Namtumbo district and surrounding communities. For Tanzania, a functioning uranium mine would diversify a minerals sector currently dominated by gold, and give the country a stake in the global nuclear fuel supply chain alongside Namibia and Niger.

What happens next

With political pressure now applied publicly by government, the next milestones to watch are whether Mantra can close financing with its Russian and Tanzanian lenders, and whether Dodoma extends the mining licence beyond 2028 to give investors the certainty they are demanding before committing further capital.

Sources

• Pan African Visions: Tanzania's Uranium Dawn: Deputy Minister Pushes Mantra to Accelerate Mkuju River Project, 14 May 2026

Photo: A sample of yellowcake, the processed uranium concentrate Mkuju River aims to produce. 책읽는달팽, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.