President Paul Kagame has offered free visa and air ticket to anyone disputing Rwanda’s Coltan (tantalum) production capability to visit the country’s active mining sites.
“Rwanda has not only enough Coltan but of a very high quality. It is something that has been known for years,”Kagame said Thursday at a monthly Press Briefing at Village Urugwiro.
Kagame told KTPress that whoever is having confusion about Rwanda’s Coltan production, “we can even pay a ticket for them, we shall give them a visa and we shall take them to the mines. If only they won’t want to stay there and keep mining. For anybody with that confusion, there is a simple way and not so expensive to sort it out.”
In 2013, Rwanda attracted global attention when it exported 2,466,025kgs of Coltan- this accounted for 28% of total 8,807,232Kg of tantalum produced globally. Rwanda earned $134.5M in revenue from the Coltan.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Mines says Rwanda is now the world’s single largest exporter of tantalum mineral and that the 2013 export were only a small portion of the country’s production capacity.
Critics from across the globe continued to accuse Rwanda of siphoning Coltan from DRC and exporting it as with origin from Rwanda.
Kagame said that Rwanda habours excessive tantalum minerals ‘of even good quality’ than others in the region.
On the claims that Rwanda could be mixing its resources with those from DRC, Kagame told KTPress “It is simple. These are simple things you can have evidence for, because, you can come and visit the mines and see people mining and test the minerals.
Sometimes the World creates mountains out of nothing and just enjoy spreading rumours and confusion.”
The President added that his government is ready to facilitate whoever feels interested in proving Rwanda’s state of minerals.
Rwanda has managed to successfully satisfy requirements of US Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (DFA) that controls the purchase of minerals sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its 11 neighbours.
In 2013, Countries subjected to DFA law contributed only 23% of global coltan exports.
In response to the Dodd-Frank legislation, Rwanda has a Minerals Traceability Program where all minerals mined there are tagged from the mine-sites until they are ready to be exported.
Companies sourcing minerals from Rwanda are forced to export only those that are conflict-free.
