Govt issues mineral, prospective licensing rights
MPAKA
– “This year, government issued several mineral and prospective licensing rights, including revival of the Ngwenya Iron Ore Mine, Maloma Colliery expansion and Mhlume Coal Mine, and others.”
These were the words of Prime Minister (PM) Cleopas Dlamini at the end of the Cabinet retreat at Royal Villas two weeks ago.
Malindza Bucopho Seven days Tsabedze said the PM’s good news would surely return Malindza and the surrounding areas to their former glory.
He said as a community, they were looking forward to the start of work and reopening of the mines. Tsabedze said the mine reopening would halt the migration of young people to urban areas in search of employment opportunities. He said a number of people will be gainfully employed within the community .
Tsabedze said they had been promised about 2 000 jobs for people in the mining sector. “This we understand will be a mix of high income, medium and low income jobs.”
Tapped
He said the government programme in the mining sector was one of the things government should have tapped into a long time ago, in order to reduce the unemployment rate in Eswatini .
Worth noting, the government issued five mining licences to Africa Gold, Ngwenya Iron Ore, Mpaka Coal Mine, Mhlume Coal Mine and Mpakeni Quarry Mine. Tsabedze further disclosed that Malindza had a lot of young people who completed their high school and tertiary education but were idle at home. He said the employment opportunities would assist in reducing the high level of poverty in the area.
“Opening of the coal mine will surely assist even in crime prevention, as most of the young people will have no reason to opt for crime, with employment opportunities that will keep them busy,” said Tsabedze.
“The people of Malindza have given up on farming as they have been on the receiving end so many times on maize plantations due to the extreme heat,” he added.
Tsabedze said the recent rains exposed residents to a lot of danger as roads were damaged, adding more distress to connecting the communities of Malindza. He added that with the mines, they knew some of the roads would be greatly maintained, as they would play a vital role in transporting products from the mine.
The PM in his address to the media at the end of their Cabinet retreat at Royal Villas, disclosed that there were also other projects in the pipeline, such as prospective diamond extraction at Mliba, Dvokolwako, Madlangempisi, Croydon and Sinceni. The premier said part of the exciting development that would be seen during the 2022/2023 financial year was observed in the mining sector.
Operated
It is worth noting that Lurco Coal Eswatini was the first company to be granted a prospecting licence for the coal resources at Mpaka Coal Mine in the Lubombo Region. Lurco Eswatini is a subsidiary of Magni Investment Holdings (MiH). Mpaka Coal Mine was last operated in 1992, having been mothballed after the previous owner exited the Eswatini market.
Meanwhile, another company that has been earmarked for Mpaka is the long-awaited Lubhuku Thermal Power Plant, the plant with a proposed 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station in Eswatini. In 2018, the company was launched by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy as part of the Eswatini Energy Masterplan 2020-2035, which also included plans for the 300MW project.
The planned coal-fuelled plant necessitated for the revival of the nearby coal mines to operate.
Themba Gamedze at Mpaka said the project was taking forever for them as the situation was dire for a number of young people in the area.
“It is unfortunate that projects of this magnitude come once in a while like desert rain,” said Gamedze.
He further pleaded for more companies to invest in the region, especially it the Lowveld because they could not even spend time tilting the fields with planting as the heat wave and lack of water was a challenge.