THE KWALE PROJECT
Base Titanium Limited, operates the 100% owned Kwale Mineral Sands Operations in Kenya, which commenced production in late 2013.
Kwale Operation is located 10 kilometres inland from the Kenyan coast and 50 kilometres south of Mombasa, the principal port facility for East Africa.
The Kwale Operation features a high grade ore body with a high value mineral assemblage, rich in rutile. Mining initially commenced on the Central Dune orebody before transitioning to the South Dune orebody in June 2019. The Kwale Operation currently accounts for approximately 65% of Kenya’s mining industry by mineral output value.
Kwale Operations is designed to process ore to recover three main products: rutile, ilmenite and zircon.
Base Titanium employs a hydraulic mining method which has proven cost effective and well suited to the Kwale deposit and involves blasting the mining face directly with high pressure jets of water to create an ore slurry. The ore slurry is then pumped to the wet concentrator plant where slimes are removed before a number of gravity separation steps reject most of the non-valuable, lighter gangue minerals to produce a heavy mineral concentrate. The heavy mineral concentrate is then processed in the mineral separation plant which cleans and separates the rutile, ilmenite and zircon minerals into finished products for sale.
Finished products for bulk shipment are then transported to the Company’s privately owned and operated Likoni Port Facility for export, while containerised shipments are exported through the Port of Mombasa.
Base Titanium is actively seeking to extend the life of Kwale Operations through its near mine and regional exploration programs.
As we look at Base Titanium as Kenya’s first largest Mining project in the extractives industry, let us reflect on the circumstances before, now and in the future that can help Kenya maximize exploitation of natural resources, to expand the extractives industry and to make use of the extractive industry infrastructure, technology, production processes and products, to support establishment of diverse related industries in Kenya. This will help create more local content opportunities in terms of job creation, supply chain opportunities, value addition and increased useful socio economic infrastructure.that supports further economic empowerment of local communities. EVITO blog platform which is a community empowerment project of the Ummah Initiative Group in partnership with Base Titanium, is hereby inviting all stakeholders to share their thoughts and views on how as a country we can build a vibrant extractives sector industry, that supports the growth of other diverse industries. Welcome all to the EVITO blog platform.
Many times the question is asked, ‘why does Base Titanium export the minerals instead of establishing a value addition plant so the minerals can be processed further locally, and used by the manufacturing sector to create products for sale locally and abroad?’ Who is supposed to answer this question, is it Base Titanium or the government, or both? Considering Kenya’s current industrial environment and circumstances, what are the possibilities for the establishment of value addition industries to utilize the minerals and other extractives products such as the crude oil from Turkana? What should we concentrate on now, exploration and setting up of industries like Base Titanium and Tullow Oil, or should we stop that and focus on setting up of value addition industries that support the manufacturing industry, or should we as a country do both simultaneously?
On why we don’t have a local value addition plant i guess the cost of production could be high and maybe the finished products are highly demanded overseas.. My thoughts
I applaud Base titanium for being at the forefront in empowering the locals through education by offering bursaries, however my concern has been the long term environmental impact and sustainability. What measures have been put in place to shield the locals from exposure to the adverse effects of the mining product. Many locals rely on ground water directly from surface run-offs. How do we guarantee safety of this water from contamination with toxic metals/ions?
The issue of value chain should be done by Government both National and County in collaboration with the Company. we can use transport corridor of Shimoni rather than Likoni to channel our products.
For the community to benefit from the mining industry company, first we have to develop policy and also to amend the existing policy, the power and function of mining should be devolved so as our Gonverment can form and implement policies regarding mining. Coordination and collaboration of the stakeholders can lead to enhancement of the value chains.