|
Mining can take place in CGKR - official
DONNY DITHATO
Staff Writer
3/9/2004 12:20:05 AM (GMT +2)
THE head of Public Relations and Research in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Clifford Maribe has said there is a possibility of future mining inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).
He said that should the current poor market conditions and technological advances change for the better, or the country’s economic fortune plummet, mining could take place inside the CKGR.
“It is possible, for a depositpreviously thought uneconomic deposit become economic as a result of change(s) in mineral prices and technological advances which may lower production costs through improved productivity and efficient mining.
That is why and this happens in the mining industry worldwide, mining companies would want to hold on to uneconomic deposits, for as long as they can,” he said.
Maribe’s comments are contrary to government claims that no land use patterns incompatible with the promotion of wildlife conservation, protection of the pristine ecosystem and the realisation of economic returns from tourism will be allowed inside the CKGR.
Maribe was responding to media questions during a fact-finding mission to the CKGR organised for journalists and NGO representatives by the government. He said in a briefing at the Gope Kimberlite that “over the years, people who resided inside these protected areas have been encouraged to move out” because, “their modern economic activities, be it hunting, arable and/or pastoral agriculture or some other commercial activity are inconsistent with the primary purpose of Parks and Reserve, to conserve Botswana’s unique wildlife heritage”.
He maintained that “the aggregation of the residents of the reserve into larger communities, coupled with their modern hunting and herding activities, were incompatible with the promotion of wildlife conservation”, resulting was a decision to relocate them outside the reserve in 1986.
Previously, the government has vacillated on the possibility of future mining, but rather insisting that the relocation of the San communities from the CKGR was unrelated to mining activity. Some sources in the diamond industry have described the Gope kimberlitic deposits as moderately large. International Diamond mining giant, De Beers, is said to have spent millions of Dollars on the Gope site by the end of 2002.
http://www.mmegi.bw/2004/March/Tuesday9/10125360291202.html
|