UK firm wins Sh300m tender to help Kenya’s search for minerals
Mining secretary Dan Kazungu (right) with PS Mohamed Ibrahim during a media briefing on Kenya’s first mining and mineral policy at his office in Nairobi on April 4. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
What you need to know:
International Geoscience Services will act as the global consultant to help Kenya in preparation and later monitoring and evaluation of the national airborne geophysical survey.
This comes at a time Kenya is pushing the UK to provide colonial era geological data to help the country exploit its minerals.
A British firm has won a multi-million contract to help Kenya search for minerals in a move expected to boost exploitation of the country’s natural wealth.
International Geoscience Services (IGS), a specialist company hived off and partially owned by the British Geological Survey, has signed a Sh300 million contract with the Ministry of Mining.
The UK-based company will act as the global consultant to help Kenya in preparation and later monitoring and evaluation of the national airborne geophysical survey.
IGS beat a field of 17 global companies from Canada, UK, Finland, Denmark, Kenya, South Africa, Japan and Australia.
The scope of the work is funded by the Government of Kenya and led by IGS in partnership with PGW of Canada — with whom IGS has already won several other recent contracts elsewhere.
Peter Zawada, managing director of IGS, said: “I am very pleased that IGS has won this very important contract, which demonstrates our competitiveness and further establishes our reputation in international geoscience consultancy.”
Mining secretary Dan Kazungu, who was in the UK last week, said IGS would work closely with a select team of 16 top Kenyan geologists from the Ministry of Mining, National Council for Science and Technology and the academia to finalise terms of reference and specifications for the search of the contractor to conduct the national airborne geophysical survey.
This comes at a time Kenya is pushing the UK to provide colonial era geological data to help the country exploit its minerals.
The UK data could be a huge boost to the budding mining sector as the government races to locate mineral resources that could transform the economy.
“Discussions are at an advanced stage to have Britain repatriate geological data back into Kenya,” Mr Kazungu said in an interview.
Private companies have been forced to conduct own expensive mini-surveys in areas of interest as there is no public database of what minerals the country has.
In recent years, Kenya has attracted huge interest from both local and foreign firms seeking to exploit potential deposits of gold, copper, mineral sands and coal.
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