Mpanda District: History
Historically Mpanda District was part of Tabora, but in 1975 it was transferred into the newly created Rukwa Region. In 2012 Mpanda District was transferred into the Katavi Region.
Mpanda owes its origins to the discovery of gold in 1934 by a very determined Belgian geologist and mining engineer called Jean de La Vallee Poussin. He obtained the concession and after then discovering a commercially viable deposit of lead and zinc, managed to develop the underground mine despite the difficulties of doing so in World War II. He was encouraged in this venture by the government of the time, seeing this as a source of raw materials for the war effort. The company, Uruwira Minerals Limited, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as a source of financing for its contribution to the railway and the pipeline for water to the mine and township of that time. The need to transport the mineral concentrates to Dar es Salaam justified the construction of the railway to link up with the Ujiji to Tabora railway.