The Ulanga district of southern Tanzania is a landscape of rivers, thick forests, fertile rice and maize fields, and ancestral places of worship. For generations, families here have lived from farming, forest products, and artisanal crafts like pottery. Land is at the centre of life: “Life without land is not life. Land is everything.” Graphite mining has disrupted this balance, bringing promises of development but leaving behind a trail of displacement, broken commitments, and human rights violations. Instead of empowerment, the community feels surrounded by outsiders, stripped of their voice, and criminalized for defending their home. “Foreigners have come, they are destroying our land and our forests and our water sources, they are abusing our basic rights and putting us in detention for the crimes of defending our land,” says an Ulanga faith based leader.

Since 2012, the Tanzanian government has advanced plans for graphite mining in the Ulanga district. At the moment, there are three main projects, at different stages of implementation: the Mahenge, the Liandu, and the Epanko graphite projects. The Mahenge Graphite Project – one of the largest flake graphite resources in the world – is owned by the Australian Black Rock Mining. Since 2021, the project is managed by the Faru Graphite Corporation joint venture, between Black Rock (84%) and the government of Tanzania (16%). Construction began in 2022 and the mine is expected to operate for over 30 years, with an annual production of 250,000 tonnes of high-purity graphite. The open-pit Mahenge Liandu Graphite Project, meanwhile, is being developed by Armadale Capital, a London-listed natural resources company that acquired it from the Tanzanian company Graphite Advancement. The project is promoted as low-cost and long-life, yet similar to Mahenge, affected communities face challenges in negotiating fair compensation and express the need for resettlement to arable agricultural areas that avoid conflicts with natural reserves. The Epanko mine is owned by the Australia- based company EcoGraf, formerly known as Kibaran. In 2023, EcoGraf incorporated Duma TanzGraphite Limited, creating a joint venture to develop and operate the project. EcoGraf holds an 84% stake in Duma TanzGraphite while the Tanzanian government owns a 16% free-carried interest. The project has attracted several investors, including the German KfW IPEX-Bank, which has been providing advisory services for this project for almost a decade and it is currently mobilizing further funding. In June 2025, EcoGraf announced that the European Union (EU) is also exploring support for the Epanko graphite project, as part of its efforts to strengthen its critical mineral supply chains.

The impacts of graphite mining operations in Ulanga are layered, severe, and deeply human. Families speak not only of lost land and livelihoods, but also of growing safety concerns, breaking apart of cultural practices, and the fear that now permeates everyday life For most households, the upheaval began when their fertile lands were taken away and given over to the mines. Families who once grew maize, rice, beans, and vegetables, and kept livestock for food and income, were uprooted from productive farms and resettled on dry, barren soil where agriculture is nearly impossible. A paralegal working with the community resident described, “People were moved from their fertile land to dry areas… where they cannot farm as before.” The loss of farming has not only produced hunger but stripped away community resilience and the ability to sustain households Women in particular have been deprived of traditional sources of livelihood. Pottery, once decorated with graphite and sold to provide household income, is no longer an option, while bamboo, used for weaving ungu plates common to every Tanzanian home, has become harder to collect. What was once a web of land-based practices sustaining families and culture has been systematically dismantled. Residents in Ulanga stated that the relocation process was poorly planned and purposefully confusing. Each project, the Mahenge, the Liandu, and the Epanko requires community relocation but not all communities have been given new land to move to. For instance, some community members affected by the Mahenge Graphite Project were paid out cash compensation and relocated to Idenki, 3 km from their original homes…