23 Feb 2017

In over four years, four mining companies have closed operations in Botswana after being placed under liquidation as a result of untenable cash flow situations.

Answering a question in Parliament recently, Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security said these were typically attributed to poor commodity prices and unsustainable operating costs.

The mines, he said include BCL Limited, Tati Nickel Mining Company, Messina Copper Botswana and Discovery Copper Botswana.

Advocate Sadique Kebonang  indicated that over the past nine years, the same mining companies had been placed under liquidation resulting in job losses.

“BCL Limited was placed under provisional liquidation in October 2016, and at the time about 6 305 people lost their jobs at the company’s mining operations in Selebi Phikwe,” he said, adding that these included employees and contractor employees.

He further said Tati Nickel Mining Company, a subsidiary of BCL Limited and the owner of Phoenix and Selkirk mines near Matsiloje was placed under provisional liquidation in October 2016.

Advocate Kebonang indicated that the closure of the mines led to a loss of 939 jobs including mine and contractor employees.

He noted that Messina Copper Botswana, which owns Thakadu and Mowana mines near Dukwi, was placed under liquidation in December 2015.

“At the time of closure of the Mowana Mine, about 720 employees including mine and contractor employees lost their jobs,” he said.

He also told Parliament that Discovery Copper Botswana operations at Boseto Mine near Toteng closed in February 2015, when the company was placed under provisional liquidation and at the time about 800 employees of the mine and contractors lost their jobs.

Further, he said during provisional liquidation in July 2015, Discovery Copper Botswana was acquired by Khoemacau Copper Mining.

He said Khoemacau Copper Mining was planning to start development of the mine at its zone 5 site and the refurbishment of the processing plant at Boseto site in the middle of 2017, with a view to commence production by 2018.

“Currently Khoemacau employs 282 persons, including contractors at Boseto and Zone 5 sites. Some of the employees who lost their jobs as a result of the liquidation have found new income generating ventures,” he said.

Specially Elected Member of Parliament, Mr Mephato Reatile had asked the minister to state the number and names of mining companies operating in Botswana that have closed their mining operations or undergone liquidation in the past nine years.

Mr Reatile also asked how many mine workers employed with mining companies have been retrenched and made redundant as a result of the closure or liquidation of mining companies in the same period. BOPA