The Eastern and Southern African Mineral Resources Development Centre (ESAMRDC) which later changed its name to the Southern and Eastern African Mineral Centre (SEAMIC) was established in 1977, under the umbrella of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) principally to carry out regional geological surveying and to provide minerals exploration and consulting services for programs of its founding member states,Ethiopia, Tanzania and Mozambique, later joined by Uganda, Angola and the Comoros. Kenya became a member in 2006 and the Sudan joined in 2010. In 2007, the ministerial meeting in Maputo decided that membership is open to all African states.

To reflect this expansion of the scope, the name of the Centre is changed to African Minerals and Geosciences Centre (AMGC) starting from July 2015.
In 1998 AMGC moved its operations to an extensive new site in Dar es Salaam with a mission to “Promote socio-economic and environmentally responsible mineral sector development in Africa”. To meet the new demands of the mineral sector stakeholders the Centre diversified its services to provide a high tech, state-of-the-art minerals analytical laboratory services and geoinformation data processing activities, complimented with the provision of short term specialized trainings.
The trainings were provided under GEODESA, GISAfrica and AEGOS and other smaller projects with funding from the EU, UNDP, UNIDO and the governments of Japan, India, Belgium and France.

The availability of the Centre’s ISO 9000:2008 certified analytical and data processing services at a closer proximity to the exploration and development sites has significantly eased the burden of the investors in conclusively defining areas of mineral potential and hence accelerating mineral discovery and development to benefit the member states national economies, provide employment, reduce poverty and improve the livelihood of its people and to contribute to growth of their respective
national economies.