Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content

An Africanist Perspective

Politics. Economics. General Social Science.

Main menu

  • Home
  • About
  • Book: Legislative Development
  • CV
  • Research and Papers
  • Teaching

Tag Archives: Africa Barrick

Mining in Kenya

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Ken Ochieng' Opalo
Reply

Najib Balala, cabinet secretary for mining, says the new Mining Bill is ready. The bill will be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval before publication. Balala gave hints of its contents, which include the establishment of the following:

  • National Mining Corporation (NMC) – Investment arm of the government in the mining sector. It will hold interests on behalf of the government in mining companies.
  • National Mineral Certification Laboratory
  • Minerals and Metals Commodity Exchange
  • Minerals Sovereign fund
  • A 10% free carry interest

At the presser, Mr. Balala also revoked allegedly irregularly issued  mining licenses between January and May of this year.

I like the ideas of the NMC, the certification laboratory and the sovereign fund. I hope the certification lab also includes a program to boost the skills set of government officials in the mining ministry – geologists, valuers, financial experts, etc. As I have written before, African governments remain at a disadvantage when dealing with mining companies that far exceed them in capacity. As a result, more often than not they end up not getting the best of deals, all things considered. For instance, Kenya will only get about 5% in royalties from its massive recent rare earth minerals find in Kwale County.

Also, the fund will be great. As long as it is transparently managed and does not become another NSSF, which is currently a cash cow for well connected individuals.

But the proposed bill also has the ludicrous requirement that mining companies get verification from the government 21 days before publishing any information on mineral discoveries. I see mischief in this. If the intention was to ensure that mining companies do not engage in speculative manipulation of the public [like Cortec Kenya appears to have done] why doesn’t the government just have a rule that those who mislead the public on mineral discoveries will be fined?

Given the revenue implications of mineral discoveries and extraction – the central government must share revenue with county governments – the central government geologists ought not be the sole final deciders on the value of discoveries. And if the government insists on pulling through with the proposed directive then county geologists must also have access to the information from mining companies before it is approved for release by the government.

ImageTo put it mildly, so far Nairobi has not been transparent about mineral deals. I hope that when the bill gets to parliament MPs will ensure that at the very least it meets minimum standards of transparency required for the proper management of the nation’s mining sector – including membership in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI (see candidature requirements here).

Balala’s statement is available here.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...
Posted in africa | Tagged Africa Barrick, Base Titanium, coal mining in Kitui Kenya, Cortec Kenya, Cortec Pty, extractive industries transparency initiative, Fenxi Coal Mining Company, iron ore in Kenya, mining in kenya, mining news, Najib Balala, national social security fund, niobium, oil in Kenya, rare earth minerals in Kenya, Sterling Limited, the mining sector in kenya, titanium mining in kenya, Toronto Stock Exchange, tullow, Tullow Oil | Leave a reply

Join 17,056 other followers

Recent Posts

  • The Other Nile River
  • In the Land of Kush
  • The ISIS Files are now available online
  • Muchelemba Interviews Wantchekon
  • Is Tanzania more unequal than Kenya?

Top Posts

  • Brazil is officially the 2nd biggest black country, after Nigeria
  • About
  • The messy story of drug trafficking in kenya (will Lucy spill the beans?)
  • A look into Kenyatta's new cabinet
  • Graphical Illustration of China's global reach

Popular Topics

  • Abuja
  • Addis Ababa
  • africa
  • African Union
  • angola
  • burundi
  • Chad
  • China
  • Corruption
  • Cote d'Ivoire
  • Dar es Salaam
  • Democratic Republic of COngo
  • development
  • development economics
  • drc
  • Economic Development
  • Ethiopia
  • Ghana
  • Jacob Zuma
  • Juba
  • Kampala
  • Kenya
  • Khartoum
  • Kibaki
  • Kigali
  • kinshasa
  • lagos
  • Mogadishu
  • Mwai Kibaki
  • Nairobi
  • Nigeria
  • ODM
  • PNU
  • poverty
  • Raila
  • Raila Odinga
  • Rwanda
  • Senegal
  • Somalia
  • south africa
  • south sudan
  • sudan
  • tanzania
  • Uganda
  • Uhuru Kenyatta
  • William Easterly
  • william Ruto
  • Yoweri Museveni
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe
April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Sep    

Twitter Feed

  • This is a big deal. Malaria vaccine trial raises hopes of beating disease ft.com/content/4f934a… via @FT 4 hours ago
  • RT @tariqthachil: Beggars belief, if true. US based academics, if you are still running ‘field’ F2F projects in India, that is frankly shoc… 14 hours ago
Follow @kopalo

RSS World News

  • An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

Blogroll

  • Afromusing
  • Blattman's blog
  • Dani Rodrik
  • Frontier Markets
  • Ghafla Guy
  • Global Observatory
  • Kenyan Pundit
  • Melina Platas
  • Misschee
  • Monkey Cage
  • Rachel Strohm
  • Sahel Blog
  • View from the cave
  • White African
  • world bank blog
  • wronging rights

Archives

Recent Posts

  • The Other Nile River
  • In the Land of Kush
  • The ISIS Files are now available online
  • Muchelemba Interviews Wantchekon
  • Is Tanzania more unequal than Kenya?

Kenyan Blogs Webring

  • KBW Aggregator
  • Home - KenyaUnlimited
  • Previous Blog
  • Members List
  • Random Blog
  • Next Blog

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com
Website Powered by WordPress.com.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
<span>%d</span> bloggers like this: