Kazungu says Base Titanium new licence is for exploration

Mining Secretary Dan Kazungu has denied claims that Base Titanium Limited has been given a licence to extend mining in Kwale County.

Mr Kazungu said the firm which has had operations in Kenya since 2014 has only been given a prospecting licence to explore areas surrounding its current project.

“What Base has is a prospecting licence, it is for scanning for minerals. They have seven years to their current investments and what they are saying is, can we look around and see if we can expand in the future,” CS Kazungu said in Nairobi Monday.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian and UK-listed resources company, Base Resources Limited, has been granted exploration tenure on land surrounding its current Kwale operations, bringing the total prospecting area to 177 square kilometres from 56.

Mr Kazungu said that those who were claiming that the firm has already been allocated a mining licence are “economic saboteurs” who were politicising the matter.

The firm’s general manager, External Affairs and Development, Joe Schwarz, said there was a misunderstanding that the company had been granted a licence to mine in surrounding areas.

“There has been significant engagement with different stakeholders including the members of the county assembly, the county government, the political leadership and the community,” said Mr Schwarz.

He said the company would hold talks with the community in the next few weeks to sort out the problem.

READ: Base Titanium gets boost in its quest for special licence

Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya has been fighting claims by the opposition coalition Cord that an application for a special mining licence by Base Titanium Mining Company has been approved by Mr Kazungu.

“If you have a problem you come to this ministry, the same person who was comes from areas where we have done surveys, why did they not fight the survey there,” said the CS.

The ministry says it had granted similar prospecting licences in Vihiga, Kakamega and Siaya for companies prospecting for gold. Kenya is also in the process of conducting a geospatial survey over the whole country with the first phase expected to start this December.

Mr Kazungu said 17 consultants had applied to give technical expertise on the project and to advise a 16 member team of geologists in carrying out the airborne survey.

Seven consultants have since been selected, with the winner of the contract set to be announced by the end of the month.