Kedikilwe advocates empowering citizen miners

The minister's suggestion came as discussions at the inaugural Coal Roadmap pitso last week turned to how more Batswana could be helped to participate in developing the country's massive mineral resources.Some delegates noted that while the country was endowed with more than 200 billion tonnes of coal, Batswana explorers or mine developers were scarce on the mining landscape.

Instead, the coal sector is dominated by South African, Australian, British and increasingly Chinese players, with the only active citizen investors playing minority roles in joint ventures.Responding to delegates' enquiries on the matter, Kedikilwe suggested the creation of a forum to chart the empowerment of citizens in mining development. He said dialogue was required into how, for example, citizens could participate in the 10 percent independent sales window government has secured for production from Debswana.