BCL/Tati Nickel mines closure - unions� position
Correspondent | Friday October 14, 2016 18:00
We further wish to correct some misconceptions that have been peddled by the Government after it had announced that it has closed these Mines lest the Nation be made to believe that Government’s decision is correct and appropriate.
First, we wish to give the chronological order of events which surrounds the closure of these Mines.
After protracted internal consultation between the Management and the Union it became apparent that the situation at BCL and Tati was not going to be resolved. At that stage the Union appealed to the Board of Directors of BCL Mine and the Government to intervene. Events which followed the appeal unfolded as follows:
– On 31 August 2014 a petition was handed to Dr Akolang Tombale, the then Chairman of the BCL Board of Directors whose involvement did not help the Company.
– On 18 April 2016 another petition was handed to Honourable Mr Kitso Mokaila then Minister of Minerals Energy and Water Resources who could not respond in reasonable time as the situation worsened.
– On 5 July 2016 the last petition was delivered to the Honourable Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi, Vice President of the Republic of Botswana.
– On 14 September 2016 Honourable Mokgweetsi Masisi introduced the Cabinet Sub-Committee set up by the President of Botswana which according to him was to investigate problems at BCL and make recommendations to the Cabinet.
– On 7 October 2016 at about 19h30 the Cabinet Committee convened an emergency meeting at Nickel Boardroom at BCL Mine at which they announced that the BCL Mine was closed with immediate effect and the Company was placed under provisional liquidation.
– On 8 October 2016 the Cabinet Sub-Committee addressed a mass meeting outside the main entrance of the Mine at which they announced to all BCL employees for the first time that the Mine was closed since yesterday.
– On 9 October 2016 the Government obtained an Order from the High Court of Botswana in Gaborone which placed both BCL and Tati Mines under provisional liquidation and appointed Mr Nigel Dickson-Warren as the Provisional Liquidator.
We hope it is clear from the above that the decision to close the Mines came without notice.
The Government has said a lot about why they found it necessary to close the said Mines without notice. It is our observation that the reasons given to justify the sudden closure of these Mines as paraphrased below deserve scrutiny hence this statement.
Government said it pumped a lot of money into BCL Mine every year to make it run.
Contrary to the above, it is on record that the last time Government, as a shareholder, injected cash into BCL Mine was in 2003. Since then the Company maintained its operations without Government’s assistance save for Government’s guarantee enabling the Company to obtain a Barclays Bank Botswana loan of $1million extended in 2016.
Another clarification to be made is that in 2013 Government converted BCL debt acquired before 2003 to equity thus making it the sole shareholder of the Company.
Government further says the Mine is too deep and expensive to Mine.
The South East Extension is by comparison the deepest shaft at BCL Mine with a depth of 1.5km needless to mention that Tati is open cast. This in itself cannot be a good reason to close the Mine as there are other deeper Mines like the Western Deep Level No. 3 (Gold) in South Africa which is 3.5km deep, two times deeper but running. Another the Kidd Creek Mine in Canada at 3km deep but still operational. The above examples show that at depth of 1.5km the BCL Mine can still be mined with the right expertise.
The Government has also submitted that the Ore deposit is of low grade thus not of economic value or put differently BCL Mine has reached the end of its economic life.