By: Ethiopian press agency

Ethiopia’s gold deposits are clustered in a Proterozoic basement, which covers about 18% of the country. A considerable part of this area has already been surveyed by aerial geophysical surveys and geochemical mapping.

According to the information obtained from Ministry of Mines the significant gold mineralization has been found in three clusters namely the Western greenstone belts, the Northern greenstone belts and the Southern greenstone belts.

The presence of gold mineralization in Western green stone belts areas has been known since the early 1930s, and several of the belts host gold. The most promising gold occurrences are located in the Tulu- Kapi and Ankore areas.

The most promising discovery in the Northern greenstone belts is the Terakimiti prospect where trenching and drilling have revealed grades of up to 16 grams a ton. The deposit contains an estimated total of 20 million tons of ore with a grade of 0.29 grams per ton and there is also 6 million tons of ore that contain 2.24% copper.

Likewise, there are already two gold mines in the Southern greenstone belt. The Lega Dembi mine in the Oromia Region has two active sites already in production one open pit and an underground gold mine.

Though the country has a great potential of gold mining, before the establishment of reform administration it has not obtained the required benefit from the mining sector because of low attention.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) responding to questions raised by members of the parliament on economic issues on July 3, 2025, said that Ethiopia is endowed with high mineral potential. However, the country is not reaping sufficient income from the sector because of lack of attention, leadership and vision by the previous regimes of the country.

Following the Macro Economic Reform income from the sector has been showing improvement. Recent outcomes registered in the sector indicate this reality. For instance, the country has obtained 300 million USD through exporting four tons of gold last year. However, it has generated 3.5 billion USD through exporting 37 tons. This big success has come because of attention given to the mineral sector by this government.

State Minister of Mines Million Matheos said that the reform agenda has significantly boosted the sector’s contribution to the national economy adding that Ethiopia’s gold mining has recorded a dramatic upswing in export performance, which officials attribute to ongoing macroeconomic reforms aimed at curbing illegal trade and improving regulatory efficiency.

Million said the surge reflects intensified government oversight, including a crackdown on illicit gold trafficking and a shift toward legal and traceable transactions.

The state minister also highlighted Ethiopia’s broader mineral potential, citing reserves of copper, lithium, nickel, and tantalum adding that the ministry is working to replicate the success seen in gold across other strategic minerals through targeted policy measures, institutional support, and stakeholder engagement.

Gambela Regional State which is among the state endowed with abundant Gold mining in Ethiopia said that gold has been smuggled and smuggled out of the country. However, following the national economic reforms that have been implemented since last year; the efforts made to address the problem are yielding results.

Head of Mineral Resources Development Bureau with the state, Ojulu Gilo said that the mining sector has been plagued by many problems until recently. Therefore, considering the conditions that have existed in the past years, the work was carried out by identifying the issues that need improvement first. In addition, taking advantage of the favorable conditions brought by the economic reforms was one of the implementation directions.

Although mining activities are carried out in various mining sectors in the region, the main focus is on the gold sector adding that there was a high security problem in the region last year; as a result, investors engaged in the sector have been unable to produce to their full potential. However, at the beginning of this year, in collaboration with federal government, the regional administration focused on restoring peace and were able to achieve encouraging results.

The achieved peace has created a favorable environment for all those involved in gold production to produce to their full potential. The situation where they used to produce with fear has changed and today all producers are working without fear. This has led to a significant increase in gold production in the region he said.

According to him, macroeconomic reform that has been adopted at the national level is also playing a role in gold production and productivity. Before the reform, most producers used to sell gold through illicit trade channels to earn better income. However, now, as investors have started smuggling and directly supplying it to the National Bank, the amount of gold produced legally has increased significantly.

As a result, with a few months left in the fiscal year, it was planned to deposit 1,850 kilograms with the National Bank, and an eight-fold increase was achieved, reaching 4,254 kilograms during the 2024/2025 fiscal year.

The macroeconomic reform has brought two benefits to the gold producer. The first is that in the past, there was a significant price difference between when producers supplied gold to the National Bank and when they sold it through smuggling. However, following the macroeconomic reforms, the National Bank has started offering prices closer to the black market, he noted.

He said that transaction through the National Bank is free from any risk. Starting from moving the money legally through the bank adding that the producers have realized this and it is more beneficial for them to deposit it in the National Bank rather than in the black market, and that the number of producers who are currently involved in the black market has decreased significantly.

Following the new macroeconomic reform, it has been possible to remove ineffective proclamations and draft new proclamations and replace them. As a result, the mining sector is experiencing promising growth both in the region and as a country. In this regard, training has been initiated by the federal government in terms of implementing the proclamations. He said that awareness-raising activities will be carried out on the new mining sector proclamation in the future, following the current situation in the region.

Currently, the regional government and federal institutions involved in the field are working together in a coordinated manner. New mining sites are also being identified; overall, macroeconomic reforms and the improvement of the peace situation are increasing the mineral resources of the region to a better level, he said.

Since gold mining can create permanent and temporary employment opportunities in terms of production, young people are participating in the sector in various ways. Currently, more than 795 people are permanently employed in income-generating activities. Also 6,890 youths have benefited from temporary job creation.

Somer, Ashe, Buzayehu and Friends Mining Small Enterprise is among the private enterprise engaged with the production of gold mining in Oromia State Guji Zone Odo Shakiso Woreda since 2023.

Ashenafi Bekama Deputy Chief of the enterprise told The Ethiopian Herald said that their enterprise has been contributing for the development of the country through engaging with production of gold mining in the woreda using conducive environment created by government.

He said that the enterprise contains 20 members that have different knowledge and technical backgrounds and it has been obtaining different supports from government entities to achieve its goal.

The Mining sector reform that was implemented in the recent years has propped up the productivity of the enterprise adding that the launching of selling of gold via National Bank refraining from forfeiture.

Explaining the advancement of the enterprise the Deputy said that the enterprise has produced over 8 kgs of gold despite scarcity of sophisticated machinery in the past two years.

He called on the need for government entities to provide the required mining machine on lease in line with government proclamation to enhance the production capacity of the enterprise.