Map of Tigray's mineral resources (north Ethiopia) - Canadian and other international mining licences

In Tigray, artisanal mining of gold in the low-lying areas with outcropping Precambrian rocks is one of the major off-farm income sources. The 17th C. Portuguese traveller Barradas had already mentioned gold production in Tembien. Rural youth seasonally migrate to inhospitable lowlands and gorges such as the largely uninhabited Weri’i River valley, to search for placer gold, washed out from weathered gold-containing quartz veins within the meta-sediments and meta-volcanics. In recent decades, large-scale gold exploration and mining of gold deposits has been carried out in various parts of Tigray by local (such as the Ezana Mining Development P.L.C.) and several foreign exploration companies particularly from Canada. Recently, The Ethiopia Cable exposed links between big Canadian mining interests and a renewed PR campaign (involving Canadian professor and lobbyist Ann Fitz-Gerald) to whitewash the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. Earlier on, it had already been suggested that one of the reasons for the Canadian government being very late in officially addressing the atrocities in the ongoing Tigray war, might be related to the country’s mining interests in Tigray.

Here we contextualise Tigray’s gold and base metal resources, and present a map of active and applied mineral exploration and mining licenses in Tigray. The largest exploration license areas are concessions of Canadian companies, followed by the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

在提格雷（Tigray）地区，出露前寒武纪岩系（Precambrian rocks）的低洼区域的手工砂金开采，是当地主要的非农收入来源之一。17世纪葡萄牙旅行者巴尔达拉斯（Barradas）就已提及滕比恩（Tembien）地区的黄金生产活动。农村青年会季节性迁移至环境恶劣的低地与峡谷地带——例如几乎无人居住的韦里河（Weri’i River）河谷——搜寻砂金，这些砂金源自变质沉积岩（meta-sediments）与变质火山岩（meta-volcanics）中经风化作用剥离的含金石英脉。
近数十年来，当地企业（如埃扎纳矿业开发股份有限公司（Ezana Mining Development P.L.C.））与多家来自加拿大的外国勘探公司，已在提格雷全境开展大规模黄金勘探与矿床开采工作。近日，《埃塞俄比亚有线报》（Ethiopia Cable）曝光了加拿大大型矿业利益集团与一场新的公关宣传活动之间的关联，该活动由加拿大教授兼说客安·菲茨杰拉德（Ann Fitz-Gerald）牵头，旨在为埃塞俄比亚与厄立特里亚政府粉饰形象。此前已有观点指出，加拿大政府迟迟未就持续的提格雷战争中的暴行正式表态，其中一个潜在原因或与该国在提格雷的矿业利益相关。
本研究结合背景梳理提格雷地区的黄金与贱金属资源概况，并展示该地区有效及已申请的矿产勘探与采矿许可证分布图。其中，面积最大的勘探许可区域为加拿大企业的采矿租让地，其次为美国与英国企业的租让地。