11 Sep 2019

Botswana Geoscience Institute (BGI) Chief Executive Officer, Mr Tiyapo Mbisane says the Central district has potential for different mineral deposits, ranging from diamonds, metals to industrial minerals.

When addressing a Central District full council meeting in Serowe on September 10, Mr Mbisane said some of the deposits were currently being mined, while some were still at exploration stage, adding that they had found precious and semi-precious stones, industrial minerals and energy minerals.

He mentioned that metals found in the district included, manganese, iron, copper and nickel, adding that iron resources occur in small quantities for economic mining in areas like Nakalaphala, Legatadimane, Matlhabanelo and Mabihibitswane.

Mr Mbisane stated that industrial minerals project aimed to identify and evaluate new industrial minerals deposits and re-assess previously documented deposits in order to confirm their economic viability.

He said Manganese was found in the Bobirwa area, while lead zinc mineralisation were identified in the Limpopo mobile belt around Torome and Mmaphala in Mahalapye zone.

“Industrial minerals found in the Central district include, salt, soda ash, aggregate, limestone, shales, clay, graphite, gypsum and silica sand,” he said.

He said industrial minerals were also targeted for employment creation as some government programmes could be promoted within this sector, adding that shales could be used for paving and sandstones for bricks.

Silica sand he said could be used for glass manufacturing and was targeted to be used at the now defunct Palapye glass plant, adding that these required small capital as compared to other mining commodities.

Meanwhile, he said BGI operated a network of earthquakes monitoring stations located throughout Botswana and they recorded any earth tremors and were telemetered to relay the information at almost real-time to their data centre in Lobatse for processing.

Mr Mbisane noted that micro-tremors were reported in Selebi Phikwe mid-December 2018, saying in February 2019, BGI and the department of mines conducted macro-seismic survey.

He said occurrence of cracks were observed in some houses at New-Stands area, while areas in the South-Eastern part of the town experienced moderate to strong sound and vibrations. ENDS