Eng. Dr. Willison Kaguga Mutagwaba graduated in Mining Engineering from the University of Zambia in 1982. He was immediately after graduation employed by the State Mining Corporation (STAMICO) and posted to work at Buckreef Gold Mine located in Geita District. He worked for the Mine for four years and was responsible for the planning, design and production of the underground mine for which by 1986 he had been promoted to “Underground Mine Superintendent”. Between 1986 and 1987, he obtained a MSc in Engineering Rock Mechanics at Imperial College in London. He got his PhD in “Design of Intelligent Decision Support Systems for Mining” in 1991 from the same College.
Between 1991 – 1994, he was employed by Imperial College as a “Research Associate” in the modelling of “Complex Ore Bodies”. He returned to Tanzania in 1994 and joined STAMICO as a Development Manager for which he worked until 1998. During this period, he was also instrumental in the setup of the curriculum and establishment of the Mining and Mineral Processing Engineering degree courses at the University of Dar-es-Salaam for which he also served as a “Part-time Lecturer”.
In 1998 he started MTL Consulting Company Limited to provide consulting services to the mining industry for which until to-date he serves as a Managing Director. In managing MTL Consulting business, he has worked as the lead person for undertaking Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for most of the mining Projects in Tanzania, lead Environmental Auditor, Design of Environmental Management Plans and Environmental Management Systems. Some of the mining companies serviced include Barrick, Anglogold Ashanti, De Beers, Mantra, IAMGold, Allied Resource, Resolute, Kiwira Coal, etc. He has also led MTL into serving the oil and gas industry, including monitoring of air and water quality at Mtwara Port in Tanzania for British Gas and conducting baseline studies (in collaboration with Golder Associates) for Beach Petroleum around Lake Tanganyika. He has advised Governments (Tanzania, Ghana) on issues of small-scale mining and advised on mining policy issues (Sierra Leone).
He has worked in many African countries including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho on a number of mining related Projects. In undertaking the consulting work, he has also worked as a Consultant to many international organizations including UNIDO, World Bank, United National Economic Commission for Africa, European Union, Department for International Development (DFID – UK), Global Environmental Fund (GEF), Centre for Development of Enterprises (CDE – Brussels) and others. He was also instrumental in setting up the curriculum for the Mining Engineering courses at the Dar-es-Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) and currently serves as a Chairman for the VETA “Technical Advisory Committee for Mining. Eng. Dr. Mutagwaba is registered as “Consulting Engineer” with the Engineers Registration Board (ERB). He is also registered with the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) as an EIA Expert and an Audit Expert.