“Any public announcement by a mining company, we as a government need to have that notification 21 days before the announcement so we can know what is happening (and) we can go and testify (whether) those finds are genuine or people are playing with stock exchanges overseas to raise funds.”
There may be another problem, too. If the discoveries are real, big mining projects might harm the communities where the resources are found.
For example, rare minerals were recently found in an area called Mirima Hills, near Kenya’s coast.
The mining company Cortec reported a deposit of more than 600 million kilograms of niobium. Niobium is used to make steel and other valuable substances. The company says the deposit could be worth 50 billion dollars.
But the discovery has already started a disagreement among the mining company, the government, and the community.
Leaders of the Mijikenda ethnic groups, which live along Kenya’s coast, say the Mirima Hills area is their place of worship. They say they hold religious ceremonies there.
Joseph Mwarandu is the secretary general of Kaya elders. He says they cannot permit mining to take place in their holy forests.
“We are opposed to the mining of minerals from Mirima Kaya forest or any other forest in the Mijikenda Kaya as a whole. So our stand is that we appeal to the authorities to be able to save our heritage, because when this forest goes, then we will have nothing to lay our hands on as far as the heritage is concerned.”
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25