Much More Security At The Tanzanite Mines

John Magufuli, who is the president of Tanzania celebrated the new wall that was constructed around the Tanzanite mines to prevent smuggling of this precious stone outside of the country.

Last September the president ordered the military to build the wall around the Tanzanite mines, located in the Mererani Hills.

This wall is several meters high and only has one entrance, which is always watched by the army. It is a mustard yellow color and very visible.  According to officials in Tanzania, the cost was 1.8 million euros. They also said that before the wall they were losing about 40% of all the production of Tanzania from smuggling.

The president has also said that now all the whole of Tanzanite must be done with the Tanzanian Central Bank inside this newly built wall. Before, you could also buy it in Arusha and Nairobi.

We will see what this does in terms of the buying power and cost of Tanzanite in the future. This could cause an increase in prices of Tanzanite, so those that have it now, could see a jump in the value. Only time will tell and as soon as we know more abotu the situation in terms of buying, we will update this blog post. If you have any questions about this or Tanzanite in general, please contact us and we would be happy to answer any of your questions.

APRIL UPDATE: According to officials in Tanzania, since the wall has been up, revenue from sales of Tanzanite has risen four-fold over the same time period in 2017. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told lawmakers on Wednesday that Tanzania earned over $316,000 from the minerals and the government puts its down to having curbed theft.