28 Jul 2014

African Copper Mining and Exploration Company donated two houses to the Department of National Museum and Monuments at Gerald Estates in Francistown recently.

The houses that were bought from Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) at the value of nearly P900 000 will be used as an office and residential plot for regional mining and a Geological Museum, which will be built next to them.

This would be an effort by the mining company to enhance its corporate and social investment in the areas that it operates around. The Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT), Mr Neil Fitt said Botswana was built on a mining area.

He said that the history of mining in the country went back to the 14th century and it is therefore, important to preserve the ruins from mining in order to help to educate future generations. Mr Fitt stressed that African Copper comes a long way with the museum and works closely with the department.

He said tourism is a huge engine for economic growth and there is an initiative on the pipeline to marry mining with tourism in order to bring more tourists into Botswana and enable Batswana to economically benefit from it.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Zambia Copper Investment Limited, Mr Thomas Kamwemdo said he acknowledges their continued commitment not only to mining copper, but for the future generations to learn more about the environment around them.

He praised the Department of National Museum and Monuments for its value in national history, saying that the museum will be built in such a way that it will display artifacts and historical information of other mines.

The General Manager for African Copper, Mr Kenneth Masogo said although corporate social investment comes at a cost, it is a moral obligation that will benefit the rest of the country. He emphasised that they have prioritised assisting the community they are working in with issues such as education, health, small and medium enterprises, food production and poverty alleviation.

Furthermore, during the tour of the site, a geologist, Mr Mosarwa Babusi stated that the houses and where the museum will be built are columnar joints, which are geological structures where sets of closely intersecting fractures, commonly known joints result in the formation of a rectangular array of polygonal prisms or columns.

He stressed that this happens when volcanic rocks cool and contracts and this columns usually vary from three metres to a few centimeters of the diameter and can be as long as 30 metres tall.

Mr Babusi said the Gerald Estates Columnar joints were declared a National Monument in 2011 as an area of land which has a distinctive geological formation.

However, Kgosi Paul Motshwane of Gerald Estates said the handing over of the two houses is the beginning of many things to come.

Kgosi Motshwane stressed that the museum will create employment for Gerald Estates residents and at the same time spread information about the history of mining in Botswana.

He said that he will use the kgotla to spread information about the museum that is being constructed and its importance. ENDS