Assessing Rwanda’s strategic metal endowment

GCRF Funding Cycle
2019-20

Principal Investigator
Dr Nicolas Gardiner

Schools
Earth & Environmental Sciences

ODA countries
Rwanda

Sustainable Development Goals

Rwanda, a beacon of progress in Africa, with a remarkable turnaround since the genocides of the 1990s, hosts significant deposits of critical “3T” metals: tin, tantalum, and tungsten. To capitalize on its resource base, in 2019 the Rwandan Government established a mining board to grow and industrialize the sector. St Andrews academics have started to develop links with local geologists and a mining exploration company, with a view to better understand the mineralisation style and geological setting of Rwanda’s 3T endowment.

Initial work has taken a range of samples which will be analysed for their geochemistry and age, and this will then be used to build a geologic framework for the country. Future plans include a PhD student who can work with local Rwandan geologists on integrating this new geological model with their datasets.