22 Oct 2015

Project manager for Orapa Today, Boteti Tomorrow (OTBT) says the proposed extension of Orapa Mine game park is expected to attract tourists in Boteti and act as a gateway to Makgadikgadi Pans. 

Speaking at the environmental impact assessment study for the extension of the mine lease area and game park in Letlhakane, Mr Israel Mpugwa, said the proximity to Makgadikgadi made the venture viable.

Mr Mpugwa said lodges and camps would be erected in the park, a move that would ultimately create employment in the area.

He further said they had advocated for the extension of Orapa Mine due to the fact that water and mud in their slurry dams was threatening to submerge them; hence the need for more land.

“The tailings in the mine will soon lack land too,” he said.

He said OTBT intended to establish a diamond mining museum that would document their mining journey.

Mr Mpugwa said the proposed park would be handed to the community at the closure of the mining as it was evident that diamonds would be depleted in the area around 2030.

The project and others in the mine closure plan, he said, would be able to generate income for the residents.

Ecosurv senior sociologist, Ms Taboka Mabudi, said they were contracted by Debswana Mining Company in the scoping phase of the assessment to consult the concerned parties on the impact that would happen to them and the environment in the area.

“The report may come with either positive or negative results,” she said.

Ms Mabudi noted that they would have to physically visit the proposed areas to get first hand information and also interview those who were directly affected.

One resident member of Letlhakane, Mr Omphile Galebotsane, said he was concerned that the assessing phase came at a stage where everything was finalised and that people were already relocated.

To that, Ms Mabudi told the residents that if their assessment proved the lives of the people in the area would be affected, then there would be no way the proposed park could have been approved.

As such, she assured the residents that their report would be independent from the influence of Debswana and that it would be published so that those who feel aggrieved could lodge a formal complaint to the relevant authorities. Ends