I believe it’s the best news ever to a mining company to
just stumble upon a previously unknown, unrecorded, uncharted ore bearing landscape
just sitting there amidst a population of humble cattle herders with not an
iota of knowledge about what the terms ‘minerals’ or ’mining’ are what about, or the amounts of money
involved in such undertakings. How rewarding to operate with the labour of
unexposed youth who are unaware of their rights or their chances of getting
affected by radiation in case what you mine contains traces of radioactive
material, what an undemanding environment. Such an environment calls for very
fast operations to maximize profits quickly before the government or whatever
authority wakes up and starts causing trouble.
This situation is exactly what is happening in Ilangida near
Ibaga and Mkalama, about 30 kilometers east of lake Eyasi as I am writing this.
Not a single regulatory framework is in effect to the activities taking place
there, its not known exactly what kind of minerals are being excavated there
but the word “copper” is used to fill this gap, the minerals could be anything
from radioactive metals to rare earth, but who is to enlighten the populace if the
ministry(ies) involved are sleeping in Dar es salaam and totally unaware?
A lot of things can and do happen in mining environments, accidents, employments(unregistered and hence untaxed) , transmission of diseases(AIDS
included),lack of compliance to various regulations etc. The mines there being
a project, even though unannounced we would expect some kind of environmental
and social assessment and approval before operating but apparently some people
are in too much of a hurry to allow such a thing to happen.
A google search with the words Ibaga copper mine,Ibaga copper ore mine or Ibaga mine(try it) leads you to mining equipment vendors in China and a Russian named company claiming to be in a position to SELL the Ibaga copper mines as an asset,also it links to a portal that invites you to an online discussion about the property.We can see the company at work there as being of Chinese people but thats where what we know ends.
The following pictures were taken of the operations there, see
and make your own decision.More images will follow. PHOTO CREDITS:PROCHESSY A RITTE
No comments:
Post a Comment