Gold mining firm seeks approval for Migori operation

Increased gold production looks set to diversify Kenya exports. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By NEVILLE OTUKI

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Summary

• Peggy General Enterprises is seeking environmental watchdog (Nema’s) approval to set up the operation, whose raw material will mainly consist of leftovers from artisanal gold miners.
• Nema has subsequently published a gazette notice inviting the public to present their views within 30 days before it determines the application.
• Gold mining in Migori’s Nyatike area is partly done by artisanal miners, whose rudimentary techniques have continued to leave particles of gold in the mining debris that is now attracting firms like Peggy.

A Nairobi-based company is setting up a gold processing plant in Migori that will extract the precious metal from small-scale miners’ leftovers.

Peggy General Enterprises is seeking environmental watchdog (Nema’s) approval to set up the operation, whose raw material will mainly consist of leftovers from artisanal gold miners.

The company will pay a fee to access the remains for processing to extract the mineral.

National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has subsequently published a gazette notice inviting the public to present their views within 30 days before it determines the application.

Gold mining in Migori’s Nyatike area is partly done by artisanal miners, whose rudimentary techniques have continued to leave particles of gold in the mining debris that is now attracting firms like Peggy.

“There has been an accumulation of hundreds of tons of tailings rich in gold left unexploited and which continue to increase in quantity as more ore is mined by the artisan miners,” the firm says in its application to Nema.

“The proponent of this project therefore saw this opportunity and decided to exploit it with an objective of putting up an investment that will recycle the tailing to extract the remaining gold instead of mining new ores that will contribute to environmental degradation,” Peggy says.

READ: UK-based Goldplat Kenya gold sales hit Sh375m in six months

Construction of the gold recovery plant is set to take six months from the date of regulatory approval and will cost at least Sh5.7 million. The gold elution and leaching plant will sit on 2.4 hectares of land. UK firm Goldplat also mines gold in Migori through its local subsidiary Kilimapesa Gold.

Another UK firm, Acacia Mining, which has been exploring for gold in Kakamega, early this year announced it had started a survey to establish commercial viability of the deposits estimated at 1.1 million ounces of the mineral.

The announcement signalled that the multinational could soon join Goldplat in local gold mining. Increased gold production looks set to diversify Kenya exports and strengthen its dollar receipts.

READ: Migori gold rush exposes miners to health risks, death

Gold was once Kenya’s highest earning mineral but was dislodged by soda ash and later titanium – which now earns the highest revenues. Gold lost its lustre as Kenya’s top mineral export with a sharp fall in sales from a peak of Sh13.9 billion in 2012 to a low of Sh625 million in 2016.

Sales of titanium, which has cemented its position as the top hard currency generator, stood at Sh13.2 billion in 2016.

The mineral is mined by Australian firm Base Resources in the coastal town of Kwale and is used as an alloy with other metals to produce lightweight metals for jet engines.