Ethiopia will be trying to improve its minerals quality as well as their quantity. This was said by Ministry of Mines on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 when discussing the Growth and Transformation Plan - Two (GTP-2).

The Ministry is going to explore based on the market. It will identify minerals that it can provide for the international market as well as the National Bank. And on the other hand, it will do the exploration based on the local market’s demand.

The Ministry has also laid its eye on what it calls developmental and capable investors. It plans to attract these inventors by creating a favorable environment for them. And as a consequence to its efforts, it expects to substitute imported minerals.

The draft GTP-2 document stipulates that the country expects the mineral sector to produce over 57,000 kilos of gold, 296,476 cubic meters of marble, over 220,000 tons of salt and 1,300 tons of tantalum.

In addition to this, the draft document envisions to collect a sales tax of 1 Billion Birr from minerals sold in the local market and 2 Billion dollars from the export of gold.

The document also incorporates a plan of exporting 650 Kilos of opal and 240 tons of tantalum to earn 16 Million dollars only from tantalum.

And with regard to oil, the draft states the Ministry will be drilling a 25 deep wells during the GTP-2 period.

Source:Ethiopian News Agency