The recently acquired Tataki Mine is expected to be remain operational for at least 10 years, its Chief Operations Officer, Lukasz Abramowicz has revealed.
Abramowicz revealed this recently during a networking session for the business community based in the northern region of the country.
“We hope to be here for a long time; this will be a 10-year operation at least. But that will be dependent on whether we continue to find more resources on the ground as we will be drilling more and more over time”, indicated Abramowicz.
“A mining operation is not something built or finishes overnight. So beyond 10 years, this will depend on the availability of resources as we continue to mine. Acquisition of Tataki mine was completed end of April, that is five months ago and we have been on the ground for a few months.”
The COO said this is a special time to start business in Botswana when the country is on the brink of a major national transformation journey of diversifying the economy away from diamonds.
Abramowicz said Global Critical Group (GCR) the parent company of Tataki mine is optimistic at the potential and ambition levels Botswana presents. GCR is an American mineral investment entity, which moved to resuscitate former Tati Mine, an embattled nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals asset. GCR will invest over P2.72 billion in long-term planning for the next decade. The mine is now a PGM asset, rich in critical minerals such as cobalt, platinum which are becoming drivers of value.
The COO said the mine will start operations next year. Currently only 45 employees have been hired during the pre-production phase. “Our target before production is 50 employees, the remaining employees will be hired in the coming weeks. It’s an ongoing process and almost all of the employees so far are locals from all over the country. However, when we have the plant running and the pit operational, we foresee at least 400 direct jobs plus contract managers.
He said many employment opportunities will be available when the plant is being refurbished as it consists of boilers, crushers. The plant is a major structure which has been dormant for close to nine years and will need hundreds of employees to overhaul.
“There is a great expectation on us to start producing and to create jobs. So, we will need suppliers and business partners who work at our pace. Our suppliers will have to learn how to operate differently at a higher level of high efficiency. Any mining operation of the scale that we are talking about here would not be successful without support of local communities and suppliers”, emphasized Abramowicz, Tataki Mine Chief Operations Officer.
