Tulawaka Gold Mine was a combined underground and open-air gold mine located in the Biharamulu District of the Kagera District of Tanzania. It is operated by African Barrick Gold which owns 70% of the mine. The remaining 30% was owned by MDM Mines.
It was one of four gold mines owned by African Barrick Gold, a subsidiary of Barrick Gold, in Tanzania, the other three being Polyanhulu, Bozogai and North Mara. The mine ceased operations in 2013.
Modern day gold mining in Tanzania dates back to the German colonial era, where the discovery of gold began near Lake Victoria in 1894. Work on Tanganyika’s first gold mine, the Sekenki Mine, began in 1909, and gold mining in Tanzania experienced a boom between 1930 and World War II. By 1967, the country’s gold production fell to a negligible level, but it was revived in the mid-1970s, when the price of gold rose again. In the late 1990s, foreign mining companies began investing in the exploration and development of gold deposits in Tanzania, which led to the opening of a number of new mines.
The original discovery of the deposits at the Tulawaka Mine was in 1998 when Barrick acquired the project, along with Buzwagi, as part of its acquisition of Pangea Goldfields Inc. in 2000. African Barrick Gold took ownership of the mine in 2010. The Tulawaka mine operated from 2005 until the first half of 2013 initially as an open pit operation, then moved to an underground mine. During that time, the mine produced nearly one ounce of gold, nearly double the original feasibility study estimate. The mine is now in the process of shutting down which may eventually include the removal of all mine infrastructure and the environmental rehabilitation of the area. Discussions with the Tanzanian government are still ongoing regarding the final closure plan.