Tanzania, which has for decades been seen as an impoverished agrarian country, is metamorphosing into a significant diamond and gold producer on the African continent over the last two decades. Small-scale miners have played a central role in this transformation. This chapter traces mining as a 'frontier livelihood' and 'mining-led urbanisation' in two northwestern Tanzanian settlements: Maganzo, a long-established diamond-ming settlement in Shinyanga region and Nyarugusu, a gold-mining site in Mwanza region which experienced its first significant rush in the 1980s. Our interest focuses on the unfolding phases of livelihood settlement transformation following the original population surge connected with mineral discovery.