26 Sep 2022

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has decided to facilitate trade in the mining industry in an endeavour to realign government machinery and ensure beneficiation on minerals.

This emerged during a recent tour of Orapa Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines (OLDM) by the Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Beauty Manake.

Ms Manake said there was need to facilitate trade in mining by establishing measures that could help cut down travelling distances and production costs.

“Mining is an industry on its own.

How do we facilitate them on benchmarking and learning from each other. It is critical to find ways through which government can develop by pulling together to provide the required capacity,” she added.

She said all diamond mining companies like Orapa/Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines (OLDM), Lucara as well as Khoemaemacau which produced Copperbelt, were in the same zone and used the same blasting equipment, blasting processes, same type of fuel and expertise. She, therefore, said it was important to facilitate them to pull together.

Ms Manake also noted that the Local Enterprise Authority and Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency should be robust in targeting citizens who were already at an advantage of contributing to growing the economy, but did not have the means.

The minister said it was important to work in unison to develop people who could form part of the logistics team that could deliver through Botswana Oil to service the mines.

“Only LEA, CEDA, National Development Bank and Botswana Development Corporation have the capacity to do that together as government, to build targeted capacity in terms of building business,” she said.

Assistant Minister Manake advised Debswana to create a model through which they could create millionaires by engaging stakeholders such as CEDA and LEA as opposed to awarding tenders to already established companies with resources.

Furthermore, she advised Debswana leadership to look into issues of green technology and establish how they could be a sustainable town.

“It is also important to make the working environment conducive so that people can look forward to work in the same mine, breed happy people,” she said.

OLDM general manager, Mr Mogakolodi Maoketsa, said the Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme was one of Debswana’s focus areas meant to to partner with communities.

“We will access services that are available from citizens, if they are not there, we will create so that they can provide services to us,” he added. ENDS