Titanium dislodges soda ash from top mineral earner berth

Politics and policy

The Base Resources titanium plant at Nguluku Maumba. PHOTO | FILE 

By NEVILLE OTUKI

In Summary

• Kenya exported titanium worth Sh8.8 billion last year after the country started producing the mineral in the coastal town of Kwale in October 2013.

Titanium became Kenya’s highest earning mineral last year as gold continued to lose its lustre with a sharp fall in sales for the precious metal that was top in 2012.

Official data shows that Kenya exported titanium worth Sh8.8 billion last year after the country started producing the mineral in the coastal town of Kwale in October 2013.

Titanium is used as an alloy with other metals to produce lightweight metals for jet engines. The government has earned Sh225.6 million in royalties since Base Resources started exporting the mineral.

But earnings from gold slumped to Sh695.3 million last year from Sh7.4 billion in 2013 and Sh13.9 billion in 2012, hurt by low global prices that discouraged miners.

The strong performance of titanium helped to grow Kenya’s overall earnings from the mining sector to Sh20.9 billion from Sh19.8 billion in 2013 when it had declined.

“The overall mineral production rose by 6.1 per cent... mainly on account of production of titanium ore,” says the Economic Survey released on Wednesday.

Titanium has dislodged soda ash from the pole position of Kenya’s highest mineral earner. Revenue from soda ash maintained its slide for the second year in a row, recording 11.3 per cent drop to Sh7.8 billion last year on lower production.

READ: Base Titanium makes first shipment

Australia’s Base Resources faced delays since 2006 due to financing constraints, government bureaucracy and disputes with environmentalists and the neighbouring community.

President Uhuru Kenyatta created the Mining ministry in 2013 to better exploit the sector and wean Kenya from its high dependence on agriculture, which now accounts for more than a quarter of the country’s wealth.

Kenya awarded its first ever gold-mining licence in late 2011 to Goldplat Plc, a UK firm, and a number of multinationals have since intensified exploration in western Kenya.

Goldplat began mining at Kilimapesa in Migori in January 2012, pouring the first bar of gold ever produced in the east Africa nation.

But a weaker gold price and uncertainty over a proposed mining law that forces foreign-owned firms to cede 35 per cent of their mining operations to Kenyans dimmed its outlook, pushing management to suspend operations in June 2013.