The Australian mining company will continue operations until 2023, a relief to the more than 1,000 people who work at the site.
Australian mining firm Base Titanium will not be exiting its Kwale location in mid-2022 after Kenya renewed its licence for 13 more months.
The news comes as a relief to more than 1,000 employees whose contracts would have been terminated at the end of June.
Base Titanium, which has also started exploration in Tanzania and is eyeing Madagascar to extend its mining exploration in Africa, is allowed to operate in Kenya till November 2023.
“Base Titanium is fully industrial. That is where we are aiming as a country, to encourage Kenyans to tap into and exploit the lucrative mining sector,” said Petroleum and Mining Principal Secretary Andrew Kamau.
If the firm gets another licence on the variation of Bumamani area in North Coast, it will extend operations by a further six months until June 2024.
Base Titanium’s General Manager for External Affairs Simon Wall expressed optimism after the renewal of the licence.
“The government finalised a variation to our mining licence last year that provided us with an extra 13 months to continue through to 2023. Minerals within our mining tenure area will be depleted, but we have a boundary variation location with the government, which will take us up to June 2024,” said Mr Wall.
He said the firm is at the back end of the project at the Coast as they identify satellite deposits.
“We have several prospecting licence applications with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining in some parts of Kwale and North Coast closer to Lamu. If they are granted, it will allow us to take samples to determine whether the minerals that we are interested in exist in an economically viable quantity,” said Mr Wall. Thereafter, the firm will close those areas for future mining.
Early last year, Base Titanium officials set up a company known as Base Explorations Tanzania, and applied for licences.
“Our parent company has picked up a project in Madagascar but is in the early stages. In Tanzania, works started late last year, and it is very encouraging,” said Mr Wall.
On the pandemic that disrupted businesses globally, Mr Wall said Base Titanium saw a spike in demand on the international market. “The majority of our products go into the production of pigment in paints,” he said.
In the past two years, as parts of the world closed down and suspended travelling, people spent time at home renovating their houses, creating a spike in demand for pigments.
“The performance of the company continues to be strong, with all mining operations continue to plan to mitigate the adverse effects of Covid-19, and to keep our employers and community safe,” he added.
In the quarterly activities report released on January 25, Base Titanium, which started operations in Kenya in 2010, said prospecting licence applications were lodged for Kuranze region of Kwale County.
“However, application numbers and boundaries have not yet been issued. The government of Kenya moratorium on the issuance of prospecting licences in November 2019 has affected the progress of all licence applications. The company continues to work with the government, and other mining stakeholders, to see the moratorium lifted to enable the recommencement of the issuance of mineral rights,” read a statement from the firm.
In the past quarter, the firm spent $300,00 in Kenya, and $200,000 in Tanzania on exploration. It paid $18.8 million to Kenya in royalties comprising the necessary catch-up payments to the June 2021 quarter and payment of the September quarter royalty at the agreed increased rate. Base Titanium Ltd also paid corporate tax instalments of $7.7 million to Kenya for the first half of 2021/22 financial year.