Firm gets permit to expand mining plan
Base Titanium Manager for External Affairs, Simon Wall, displays the mineral produced at their factory in Kwale County on January 28, 2014. The firm's licence has been renewed. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- According to the document signed by acting commissioner of mines and geology Shadrack Kimomo on May 26, the licence was renewed for two years.
- Mr Mweruphe said the villages to be affected by the new exploration were Kilole, Magaoni, Mivumoni and Mafisini.
A mining company in Kwale has secured a licence to expand exploration of minerals in the county.
According to a document seen by the Nation, the Australian company, Base Titanium, has been allowed to explore an expanded area surrounding its initial mining zone.
This comes even as Mining Cabinet Secretary Dan Kazungu announced recently, during a visit to Kwale, that the company was only given a permit to conduct an airborne survey.
According to the document signed by acting commissioner of mines and geology Shadrack Kimomo on May 26, the licence was renewed for two years.
The firm was expected to begin exploring in September, followed by an airborne geographic programme which was conducted in 2015.
The special prospecting licence now covers an area of 177 kilometres and the application will grand the company an additional 136 kilometres extending south west towards the Tanzanian border.
However, commenting on the issue, the chairman of the Assembly committee on Land, Mining and Natural Resources, Mr Ndoro Mweruphe, said due process was not followed.
He claimed that the licence was issued without the consent of locals, the governor and the county assembly - which was in the process of conducting a public forum on the same.
“As the chair, I believe if the issue was presented to me, I would have been in the forefront to move a motion before the assembly, that was not done but a licence was issued,” the chairman said.
Mr Mweruphe said the villages to be affected by the new exploration were Kilole, Magaoni, Mivumoni and Mafisini.
He added that residents who had appeared before the committee had suggested that they be given Sh5,000 for every lorry that accesses their farms, Sh20,000 per drilled hole and Sh6 million if actual mining will take place while others have refused completely.
“We are governed by the rule of law and it will not be fair if some few people can seat somewhere make decisions which will affect many families,” said Mr Mweruphe.
Since its commissioning in October 2013, the company has mined 22.2 million tons owing to the steady availability.
