Phikwe to get mining museum

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Thursday August 29, 2013 00:00

According to Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), a feasibility study is already underway for the museum which is scheduled to be running by 2016.The director of pre-university academic programmes, Haniso Motlhabane, who is heading the project, said in an interview on Tuesday that the estimated cost of the museum would be known upon completion of the feasibility study.'We will wait for the feasibility study in order for us to talk with confidence regarding implementation costs,' he said. 

The museum will transform the copper and nickel town into a rounded science centre where teaching and outreach programmes to motivate young people to pursue science and technology, laboratory activities, as well as atmospheric cleaning work will take place. Research in areas of mining and geological activities will not be left out.

BCL has already offered a de-commissioned mineshaft towards the project. 'The element of tourism will be there as people from all walks of life should come and see a mine,' Motlhabane said.Some of the opportunities that will come with the museum are teaching of mining becoming practical, research in the field and scientific means of cleaning up the effects of mining.The acting CEO of Selebi-Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU), Pako Kedisetse, has welcomed this development as one that will facilitate diversity. A benchmarking team was sent to the Kimberly Mine Museum for benchmarking.'When one project starts, it attracts a lot of other ideas that people had been hesitant to implement,' he said.