Selebi-Phikwe — Francistown West MP, Tshelang Masisi, who is also a member of the Foreign Affairs Trade and Security parliamentary committee has congratulated BCL mine for recently paying out P29 million in taxes to the Botswana Unified Revenue Services.
During a tour of the BCL mine, Masisi said it is good for the mine that has not been performing well for a long period of time to give back to government after making a profit.
He said 2009 is a bit of a tough year but they continue to cut expenses while their principal aim is to pay out all their debts.
He further noted that the mine will soon pay out the principal amount it owes the government and the money will go towards developing the copper and nickel town of Selebi-Phikwe.
"We are very much hopeful that there will be life after BCL and I thank government for implementing the town's diversification programme," said Mphathi.
He said ore is non-renewable and one day it will finish and the town's diversification programme would have been put in place. He further indicated that part of the money driving the diversification programme is the loans that the mine is paying back into the re-employment account.
Meanwhile, the mine has been involved in Corporate Social Investment endeavours for the past five years as a way of planting back to the community not to be always seen as a company that only takes from government. The company assisted in the extension of Mmadinare IDCC for over P200,000 and even fought to supply ARVs directly to its employees and dependents from its hospital.
Mphathi further briefed the parliamentary delegation that the mine also took it upon itself to resurface the mine road at a cost of P5 million though its maintenance is under council.
Last year, the mine tarred a road connecting it to Botshabelo at a cost of P1.5 million.
This was as requested by the Lands and Housing Minister, Nonofho Molefhi, when he officially opened the P5 million road.
The mine also refurbished the Masilo family house in Botshabelo for P120,000 after fires gutted it in 2007. The BCL boss further said the mine has donated a number of computers to various schools in the town and surrounding villages.
The mine has also been touring schools in the region to educate students about careers in the mining sector and continues to sponsor and support regional agricultural fares. The company also continues to avail earthmoving machinery to assist the community.
The manager further said the effluent discharge from the mine into Motloutse River has been prevented through a fully operational orchard. It is two years now since the mine reaped harvests from the farm that has also created employment besides reducing the effluent into the river.
The fruits go through a test to check if they contain metal that could pose a health hazard and Mphathi said the fruits are safe to eat.
He also indicated that the objective of the mine starting the farm was to attain a zero discharge into Motloutse River and the area between the mine and the river has been fully cultivated. He noted that irrigating water only contains sulphate that cause no harm to the plants and they are always monitoring to see if there are any other defects.
Mphathi also indicates that one of the mine dumps had some scrap metals buried in it and it encouraged illegal activities in the form of illegal mining to sell the scrap metals. "It was very dangerous and our security personnel were threatened by those people".
This had also caused a problem with illegal immigrants and Mphathi is hopeful that illegal activity will be reduced since the Zimbabwe economy is improving.
