Trinity Rutongo Mines

Rutongo Mines is a Tin Mine with a mining concession of 9,600 ha, located 26km north of Kigali, comprising six underground tin mines – Gisanze, Masoro, Nyamyumba, Gasambya, Karambo and Mahaza. Together, they contain one of the biggest cassiterite deposits in Africa.

The Rutongo mines operate under a 25-year license that began in 2015. They are estimated to contain approximately 54,000 tonnes of recoverable tin and currently produce between 40 to 70 tons per month, projected to increase to 200 tonnes per month in the next five years.

Tin exploitation at Rutongo began in 1931, and from the 1940s, the mines consistently exported 800 tonnes a year of cassiterite. By the 1950s, SOMUKI, a Belgian mining company, had developed the mine into the largest tin concentrate producer in Rwanda. In 1973, the fusion of former colonial mining sites gave rise to SOMIRWA (Société Des Mines Du Rwanda), a joint venture between the Government of Rwanda and GEOMINES. This Belgian-based mining company operated on site until its liquidation in 1986. At this time, the mines were nationalised and operated under REDEMI (Regie d’Exploitation et de Developpement des Mines).

The mines closed in 1994, during the time of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In 1995 they reopened under REDEMI as a miners’ co-operative and operated as such until 2008, when the government re-privatized them.

In May 2022, the mine was incorporated into the newly established Trinity Metals Group.

The mine has significant growth potential - future plans consist of increasing mining volumes by opening up new reserves at depth through the development of a decline below 33 level, introducing new bulk mining, utilization of larger mining equipment and the design and construction of a number of mineral processing facilities to process run of mine material and legacy stockpiled material. These plans give the mine the opportunity to more than double production over the next 5 years.