Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth, Karim Badawi, recently met with Kenyan Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Minister, Hassan Ali Joho, and Tanzanian Minerals Minister, Antony Peter Mavondi. The meetings aimed to strengthen cooperation in the mining sector, exchange expertise, and develop mineral wealth. This comes ahead of the Egypt Mining Forum 2026, set to begin on September 28. Egypt is keen on fostering partnerships with African countries to maximize the value of its mineral resources.
Minister Badawi emphasized that Egypt prioritizes cooperation with African nations in the mining sector. This cooperation aims to benefit from the continent's mineral resources and transition from exporting raw materials to developing value-added industries. He highlighted the importance of partnerships and joint investments between national companies in Egypt and its African counterparts. This approach seeks to increase economic returns from natural resources and open new investment opportunities.
During his meeting with Minister Joho, Badawi stressed the need to enhance cooperation in mining, geological surveys, and exchanging technical expertise. The Kenyan minister noted that the mining sector currently contributes around 1% to the country's GDP, with plans to increase this to 10%. He also mentioned Kenya's potential in rare earth elements and the importance of developing related industries domestically.
The meetings explored opportunities for establishing value-added industries based on mineral resources. One such opportunity is using soda ash in glass production. Both parties agreed to prepare a memorandum of understanding outlining areas of cooperation and establish joint working groups to prioritize opportunities and support joint projects and investments.
In his meeting with Minister Mavondi, Badawi highlighted the strong Egyptian-Tanzanian relations and Egypt's desire to expand cooperation in the mining sector. This includes geological surveys, exploration, mining, and mineral processing. The Tanzanian minister reported that the mining sector contributes over 10% to his country's GDP and presented efforts to expand geological surveys.
The Tanzanian minister also discussed plans to allocate 10% of mining revenues to geological surveys, aiming to increase survey coverage from 16% to 50% by 2030. The two ministers explored cooperation opportunities in phosphate and fertilizer production, given Tanzania's plans to establish phosphate processing and fertilizer industries.
The Egyptian and Tanzanian ministers agreed to continue coordinating on memoranda of understanding and organizing reciprocal technical visits. This aims to support expanding cooperation and investment in the mining sector between the two countries. The Tanzanian minister extended an invitation to Egypt to participate in the Mining Forum scheduled for November in Dar es Salaam.
Key points
- Egypt seeks to enhance cooperation with African nations in the mining sector
- Egypt and Tanzania to expand cooperation in mining and geological surveys
- Egypt and Kenya explore opportunities for joint investments in the mining sector
