Exhibit 12.1

CERTIFICATION



I, James E. Sinclair, certify that:



1.          I have reviewed this annual report on Form 20-F of Tanzanian Royalty
Exploration Corporation (the Company);



2.          Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a
material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which
such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;



3.          Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information
included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows
of the Company as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;



4.          The Company's other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing
and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control
over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the Company and have:



|(a) |  | Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls
and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the Company, including its
consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report
is being prepared;
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|(b) |  | Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control
over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial
reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;
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|(c) |  | Evaluated the effectiveness of the Company's disclosure controls and procedures and
presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the
period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and
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|(d) |  | Disclosed in this report any change in the Company's internal control over financial
reporting that occurred during the period covered by the annual report that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to
materially affect, the Company's internal control over financial reporting; and
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5.          The Company's other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most
recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the Company's auditors and the audit committee of the Company's
board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):



|(a) |  | All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of
internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the Company's ability to record, process,
summarize and report financial information; and
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|(b) |  | Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who
have a significant role in the Company's internal control over financial reporting.
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Date: November 29, 2017



|                                                              | 
|------------------------------------------------------------- | 
|/s/ James Sinclair                                            | 
|James Sinclair,
        President and Chief Executive Officer | 
|(Principal Executive Officer)                                 |