The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced that it has issued 24 investment project licenses for exploration and licenses of minerals and petroleum. The investment projects have a combined capital close to $170 million (4.95 billion birr).
The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum "to leverage the exchange for commodities such as precious gemstones", Takele Uma, Minister of Mines and Petroleum said.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines (MoM) signed a petroleum production sharing agreement (PPSA) with Poly GCL Petroleum Investment Ltd., a Chinese based company, Fortune reported.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines has finalized a draft mineral exploration licensing directive, The Reporter reported.
Following a year long suspension of issuance of explorations license, the Ministry started accepting exploration applications in March 2013, however, it has not yet started granting exploration license, according to The Reporter.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines is to reduce the validity duration of artisanal mining license from nine years to a maximum of two years, Fortune reported. The provision is said to be included under the draft mining proclamation which also include numerous amendments to the 2010 mining proclamation.
Under the current law, artisanal mining license can be renewed twice for three years. Additional amendment under the draft proclamation include provision which reduced royalty from the sale of gemstones from the current 8 percent to 7 percent.
