A sign post leading to the Base Titanium mining site in Kwale. [Photo/ thecoast.co.ke]
Kwale-based Base Titanium is set to double royalties payable to government from the present 2.5 per cent to five per cent.
The company’s general manager for external affairs and development Joe Schwarz said the firm has agreed in principal with the ministry of Mining to hike the royalties. The firm, however, did not give details of the timelines for the planned increase.“We will be paying royalties at five per cent as soon as we are able to conclude the agreement and wrap that to the mining lease,” Schwarz told journalists on Friday.The firm has, to date, paid royalties to the government to the tune of Sh1 billion. During the 2015/2016 Financial Year, it paid Sh400 million in royalties.In 2016, Base Titanium, whose operations support 1,400 indirect jobs in the supply chain through the purchase of services and goods in the country and a further 1,360 jobs in the induced economic activity contributed mineral sands that included Zircon, Limenite and Rutile worth Sh13.2 billion.The firm, at full capacity projects to produce 330,000 tonnes of Limelite, 80,000 tonnes of Rutile and another 25,000 tonnes of Zircon.The firm estimates the Kwale site has a reserve support base of 146 million tonnes of ore albeit independent analysts raise the figure to three billion.The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey 2017 data indicates Kenya’s total mineral output in 2016 had a value of Sh23.3 billion. Of this, Base Titanium accounted for Sh13.3 billion or nearly 60 per cent up from 43 per cent in 2014 and 2015’s 54 per cent.The Kwale mineral sand project is the largest mining project to be undertaken in Kenya since independence. It has a capital investment of Sh26 billion.