How were 41 Mineral Exploration Licenses In The Okavango Delta issued?

Staff Writer | Monday February 17, 2014 16:04

 Work has begun and companies have been investing their technology and financial resources on mineral explorations around the Okavango. The Okavango Delta has been shown to possess minable deposits of diamonds, uranium, iron ore, coal bed methane, as well as oil deposits, according to information unearthed by The Monitor.

Some of these companies have since published their exploration results and expressed optimism that there are profitable minerals to exploit. While the possibility of mining oil around the Okavango delta in a sustainable way may be appealing, it would seem the authorities that have been dishing out the mineral exploration licenses to international mining companies, have been slow up to now to consult with the local communities and even the international community about the new shift to turn the Okavango delta into a mining hub, and how such a move would continue to preserve the Delta ‘s unspoilt pristine beauty in the midst of the vast mining interest that have emerged.

There is no doubt that any mining interest in the Delta and around it is sure to raise concerns and those responsible for issuing out the licenses should have been the first to sell the story of positive sustainable development, if any, instead of having to parry blows from international concerns, as if there is something, to hide. How would the same authority who issued out the licenses, for instance, be able to stop the mining companies from mining the resources at the end of their costly feasibility studies, in cases of change of mind by government, we wonder.

There are concerns that with so much mining activities and interests authorised by government, the Okavango delta may even fail the test to be awarded the honour of a UNESCO Heritage site. There is also another worry that the same licenses that stretch into the Delta also encroach into the Tsodilo Hills, a World heritage site not far from the Delta.We urge the authorities responsible to come out and communicate to the nation what informed them to make the decision to allow mineral interests to extend into the Delta, and whether such activities would not harm the reputation and value of the Okavango as we know it today.