As minerals deplete, so do the country�s fortunes

Mmegi Editor | Friday November 11, 2016 11:21

In December last year Debswana Diamond Company shut down one of its mines, the Damtshaa Mine as a result of slowdown in the global diamond industry. The media has reported extensively on what led to this shut down and how the economy of our country was affected. Mmegi has also ran a series of stories last year about the liquidation of Mowana Mine, resulting in the retrenchment of 350 employees.

Events of what led to the forced suspension of Thakadu Mine, Mowana’s sister operation in February 2015 have been chronicled.

Other mining sectors have also gone through a slump. The BCL Mine, which is now under provisional liquidation, underwent a difficult phase due to significant drop in copper and nickel prices. In some months the mine was forced to pay its workers very late than usual. Finger pointing and shifting the blame became the order of the game. In the floor of Parliament the recent past minerals Minister Kitso Mokaila bashed the mine management.

We went to Selebi-Phikwe, camped there, told our readers about the BCL’s decline and how it is likely to affect the workers and the community. We wrote stories about the retrenchments at Moolmans which did excavation work for Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC), a BCL subsidiary which went down with parent company. We covered the story why was Moolmans retrenching workers. We asked what was the future of the remaining workers at the company.

In this space last month we wrote that the demise of BCL Mine has shattered a town, spread tentacles of doubt across the economy and triggered an avalanche of adverse effects in various sectors. From labour, to the financial services sector, to the Botswana Power Corporation, precious few sectors will escape the contagion effects coming out of Selebi-Phikwe from the collapse of its economic mainstay.

Thousands of miners are now in limbo, while their families, their creditors and others brace for the domino effect of a loss of formal employment. Selebi-Phikwe, with more than 50,000 residents, faces its long held spectre of becoming a ghost town. As the nation wipes its collective tears and braces for an uncertain future, it is appropriate to note that the closure of BCL Mine and the impact on Selebi-Phikwe will be replicated in several towns across the country in a few years to come.

Not only giant mining companies are feeling the pinch. Small mining company like Matsiloje Portland Cement that has been in operation for few years is also in trouble. It is undergoing the challenge of not making profits. It is safe to say the future of this company and its workers is currently not pleasing. Businesses exist to make profits and without profits they are doomed.

Today’s thought

“Mining is like a search-and-destroy mission.” 

- Stewart Udall