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Rabat – Indian innovation-oriented company Samta Group announced on December 8 that it plans to invest MAD 922 million ($100 million) in Morocco over the next five years.
In a statement by the company’s Chairman Purushottam Agrawal, the Indian group described Morocco as a “natural choice” in its expansion in Africa.
The group’s mining arm, Samta Mines, will focus on mining and mineral processing in Morocco, following close cooperation with the Moroccan Agency for Investment and Export Development (AMDIE).
Morocco World News spoke to the company’s general manager in Morocco, Dr Amit Tripathi about Samta’s goals and ambitions in the kingdom. Dr Tripathi is currently occupied with the establishment of Samta’s head office in Morocco before the ideal locations for its planned mining and processing operations will be negotiated.
Dr Tripathi explained that Morocco has “lots of potential,” with the company primarily interested in base metals, such as copper, lead, zinc, silver, antimony. Samta Mining has roughly four years of experience in Africa, as part of its global operations, and appointed a general manager for Morocco that is very familiar with the kingdom.
Samta’s close contact with AMDIE has been an essential component of the company’s expansion into Morocco. Cooperation with the investment agency “have been very positive,” Dr Tripathi stated, adding that he felt “thoroughly welcomed,” in Morocco since his arrival.
“Our decision to expedite our decision to come to Morocco, AMDIE had a role to play in it,” Tripathi emphasized.
About Samta Group
Samta Group is an unlisted Indian public company, with a diverse array of investments through its network of companies. The Group is headquartered in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital and financial hub. It is chaired by renowned Indian businessperson Purushottam Agrawal, who is also the founder and vice-chairman of pharmaceutical giant Ajanta Pharma.
In addition to including its own mining arm, Samta’s companies work on innovative fields such as biotechnology, blockchain and artificial intelligence, fintech, and renewable energy. The Group includes several specialized companies located around the world.
Headquartered in India are Samta Mines, biotech company GenCrest, renewable energy company Samta Energy, while the group additionally partners with Quantumzyne, which produces enzymes. Outside India, research firm Phyllozyme is based in Philadelphia and blockchain initiative InfiniChains operates from San Francisco and India’s IT hub Pune.
Samta’s planned expansion into Morocco comes as part of Samta Mines, which already operates in two other mineral-rich African countries — Uganda and Congo. Samta Mines focuses on strategic metals and minerals, which are essential ingredients to produce components for modern technology and industry. In Congo, Samta has a focus on copper and cobalt, while its Ugandan operations centers around nickel, tin, copper, and cobalt.
Samta Mines in Morocco
Samta Mines targets three specific types of metals and minerals. Firstly, the firm produces “energy metals” used in energy generation, transportation and storage. These include antimony, copper, lean, nickel and zinc. Secondly, the mining company extracts tin, tungsten and gold, used to produce mobile phones, jewelry and modern cars. Finally, the company mines for rare-earth elements that are essential for modern displays, cameras and IT components.
“Samta’s projects in Uganda and Congo are already three to four years old,” Dr Tripathi stated, adding that “mineral discoveries have already been made.” The company is expecting further promising mineral discoveries there. “Work in progress there is already ahead, in Morocco we are just starting,” Tripathi commented.
In Morocco, Samta aims to mine copper, lead, zinc, silver, antimony, which is used to produce a variety of modern essential technology for sectors such as transportation and telecommunications.
Having traveled around Morocco, Samta’s local general manager saw “a lot of areas with lots of potential.” However, Tripathi emphasized, “a lot of technical inputs are still required to take these opportunities to the level where they should be.”
Samta’s planned investments in Morocco are part of its “brownfield expansion strategy,” indicating the Indian company is planning to purchase or lease local production facilities with the aim of launching new production. The company has highlighted that “our operations in Morocco are aimed at developing a committed and promising business in mining and mineral processing.”
Mining in Morocco
The mining sector is a large part of Morocco’s economic drivers, given the wealth of natural resources located within the country’s borders. The industry employs 40,000 Moroccans and makes up 21% of the country’s exports, according to government data.
The sector is governed by the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development (formerly known as the Ministry of Energy, Mining, and Environment), which aims to further expand the sector through domestic and foreign investment.
Mining is one of the major pillars of Morocco’s export appeal to foreign investors.
Morocco’s investment and export brand Morocco Now has been one of the links that brought Samta Mines to Morocco. At a Morocco Now roadshow event, the company met with Morocco’s Ambassador to India, Mohammed Maliki, and representatives of AMDIE.
Representatives of the company visited Morocco and met local AMDIE officials, leading to the appointment of Samta’s general manager for Morocco, Amit Tripathi and the announcement of a 5-year investment in mining and mineral processing in the North African kingdom.
Samta Chairman Purushottam Agrawal stated the company hopes to have a “long standing relation with Morocco and to enlarge and diversify our investment in the future there.”
Samta’s General Manager in Morocco, Dr Tripathi, echoed that sentiment and appeared to be excited at the prospect of launching the Indian company’s Moroccan operations.
“I’ve been in and out of Morocco over the last two or three years, I know that it is a beautiful country, with very friendly and cooperative people,” he told MWN. “I am very happy to have been very thoroughly welcomed everywhere we have been.”
