Tanzania is already Africa's second-largest economy, with the country set for future growth after signing $1.7 billion worth of contracts with Chinese companies to construct power plants and housing units.
The new deals showcase China's ever growing economic presence within Tanzania, which has made big discoveries of natural gas off its southern coast.
"The government has today signed seven agreements with six Chinese companies worth $1.7 billion, which will be invested in power plants and construction of residential and commercial housing projects," the Tanzanian prime minister's office said in a statement.
The deals include a $692.7 million contract awarded to Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co Ltd, China's largest manufacturer of high-voltage transformers, for the construction of a 400 kV power transmission line.
Tanzania
Located in East Africa, Tanzania is bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north; Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west; and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south.
ASX "Tanzania plays"
The potential of Tanzania has already been identified by many Australian Stock Exchange listed companies, with the country providing the opportunity for a range of resource projects from rare earths and uranium, to precious and base metals, along with graphite.
Peak Resources (ASX: PEK; OTCQX: PKRLY) is one of the companies leading the way in Tanzania, and made a greenfields rare earth discovery just a few years ago at Ngualla, which is now one of the largest and highest grade rare earth deposits in the world.
Ngualla is one of the very few rare earth development projects to successfully produce high purity separated products from its mineralisation and this is an important step in de-risking the project.
Uranex Limited (ASX: UNX) is hunting for graphite in Tanzania, with the company recently completing a reverse circulation program at the Nachu project, with visual observations indicating a significant, near surface graphite resource.
Walkabout Resources (ASX: WKT) recently headed to market to raise funds for exploration activities at Kigoma copper, Lindi coal and Makete platinum group elements projects in Tanzania.
East Africa Resources (ASX: EAF) is progressing its environmental impact assessment (EIA) within the Selous World Heritage area covering the Octavo uranium prospect at Mkuju.
The company's ground position in Tanzania is highly prized due to its proximity to the goliath Mkuju river deposit.
The Octavo target is a strong radiometric uranium anomaly, possibly up to 40 kilometres in length, and on trend from Uranium One's (TSE:UUU) Mkuju River deposit of 32,750 tonnes at 439 parts per million
Cradle Resources (ASX: CXX) has recently been delivering a string of high grade niobium results from Panda Hill, which was first discovered in the 1950s and trial mined in the 1960s.
Cradle is fast-tracking a scoping study over the project and has sent some 300kg of material to SGS Lakefield in Ontario for metallurgical testwork.
Note: These companies are provided for background on the Tanzania sector.
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