Tanzania, March 25 -- Mbeya. Tanzania has signed a $300 million (about Sh700 billion) agreement with Panda Hill Tanzania Limited, placing Mbeya at the centre of a new trade and industrialisation strategy aimed at positioning the country as a supplier of processed strategic metals to global markets, including the United States.

Officials say the project marks a shift from exporting raw minerals to producing value-added materials used in advanced manufacturing, a move viewed as important to Tanzania's long-term economic transformation and export growth.

The agreements cover the development of the Panda Hill niobium project, one of the few known deposits of the metal globally. Niobium is used to strengthen steel and produce high-performanc...