Billionaire Rostam Aziz’s Taifa to build Tanzania gold mine

Taifa Group, the conglomerate controlled by Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz, is set to build and mine a new gold project in northwestern Tanzania after its partner Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. moved ahead with a financing package of up to C$32.2 million ($23 million).

The Vancouver-based company, listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, said on Friday it is pressing on with a C$5 million ($3.6 million) share sale to its existing major shareholders at 30 Canadian cents a share. The money will pay for land compensation, grade control drilling and working capital at Imwelo, its fully permitted gold project just west of AngloGold Ashanti’s Geita mine. Some of the buyers are expected to be company insiders.

The share sale is part of a larger package announced on Oct. 20. Under a non-binding term sheet, HOB Energy FZCO, a company linked to investor Ozcan Halaç, plans to buy 90.7 million new shares, also at 30 cents, for about C$27.2 million ($19.5 million). That would give HOB about 29% of Lake Victoria Gold and the right to name up to three of its seven directors. The deal still needs due diligence, final agreements and regulatory approval, and is due to close by Nov. 30.

Taifa has agreed to take an equity stake in the company as part of the plan, through its unit Taifa Mining or other nominees, and Taifa Mining will carry out all contract mining and civil works at Imwelo. The size of the new stake has not been disclosed.

“These are practical steps in preparing Imwelo for mining operations,” said Marc Cernovitch, Lake Victoria Gold’s president and chief executive officer. “While we continue advancing the strategic investment with HOB, we remain focused on maintaining momentum at Imwelo.”

A long partnership

Aziz has backed the company for more than two years. Under a binding letter of intent signed in April 2023, his side agreed to a series of financings that would lift its stake to 26%. A personal holding of 16 million shares, about 10% of the company, was disclosed in April 2025 after an initial C$3.52 million ($2.5 million) investment. Richard Reynolds, chief executive of Taifa Mining, joined Lake Victoria Gold’s board that month.

In June, Taifa Mining finished a 23-hole drilling program under the planned processing plant and workers’ camp at Imwelo. It found no significant gold beneath those sites, clearing the way for construction to begin.

Lake Victoria Gold also owns the Tembo project, next to Barrick’s Bulyanhulu mine, where it has drilled more than 50,000 meters and is negotiating a toll milling arrangement with Nyati Resources that could bring earlier production. Barrick is also an investor in the company. Imwelo has no declared mineral reserves under Canadian rules, and its 2021 pre-feasibility study is being treated as historical.

Taifa Mining describes itself as Tanzania’s largest mining contractor, with more than 30 years of work at mines run by Barrick, AngloGold Ashanti, Petra Diamonds and De Beers.

Aziz, a former lawmaker, was named Tanzania’s first dollar billionaire in 2013. His Taifa Group spans mining, telecoms, oil and gas, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and leather, and its Taifa Gas unit is one of East Africa’s biggest suppliers of cooking gas. This year, a company linked to him agreed to buy a 54% stake in Nation Media Group, East Africa’s largest media company.

Figures were converted at C$1.40 to the dollar.