Selebi-Phikwe trips, as BCL limps

SELEBI-PHIKWE: A decline in metal prices has not only affected BCL Mine and its employees, but has had a far-reaching effect on the copper/nickel mining town’s economy at large.

This affirms an urgent need to speed up diversification of the local economy away from a death wish-like dependence on the mine. Local companies are feeling the pinch to the extent that some are either winding up, retrenching or even relocating to establish themselves elsewhere.