Titanium mine worries the neighbors

MSNBC Sept 6,2000

Canadian firm
offers jobs;
Kenyans fear
losing land,
ecological harm

KWALE, Kenya, Sept. 6 — A plan by a Canadian
mining firm to turn thousands of acres of farms
and forests on the Kenyan coast into a $150
million titanium mine has sparked an outcry of
criticism from local community leaders.

AMID CORRUPTION allegations and fears that the
project will destroy a fragile ecosystem, activists charge that
multinationals like Tiomin Resources don’t adhere to the
same business standards as in their home countries.
Local businessman Frank Mutua grew up here in
Kwale, a sleepy community some 65 miles south of
Mombasa. He remembers trekking through the lush coconut
groves and citrus fruit plantations as a kid to get to school.
Now his family runs four small farms here.
Bringing a visitor to a scenic overlook, Mutua makes a
sweeping gesture over a verdant landscape that stretches to
the shimmering Indian Ocean. “All this is going to go,” he
says. “Once they start mining, there will be nothing left.”

MAJOR DEPOSITS
The Kenyan coast is estimated to hold more than 10
percent of the world’s unexplored deposits of titanium, a
metal that is used primarily in the pigment industry but also
in the manufacture of everything from airplanes to golf clubs.
Drilling in Kwale delineated a reserve of 150 million tons of
sands containing rutile, ilmenite and zircon, the minerals used
to make titanium.

There’s little doubt that Tiomin could make huge profits
from the venture — the company estimates it will make its
$150 million investment back in five years if given the final
go-ahead from Kenya’s government — and few people say
the project should be scrapped outright.
But critics accuse Tiomin of paying bribes to secure
land and mining rights, and say the Canadian firm is
insensitive to potential environmental damage.
“All that we ask for is that Tiomin plays by the rules
and sticks to international standards of doing business,” says
Mutua, who is a member of the Coast Mining Forum, an
alliance of aid agencies and local groups critical of the
Kwale project. “This company does everything in the dark.”
“I’m afraid this will go ahead,” Mutua adds. “Tiomin
doesn’t care about the environment, it doesn’t care about
the people. It only cares about the money and the profits it
will make.”

LAND FEARS
The main criticism has focused on the human costs. A
school and a church will have to close, and some 450
families, or about 4,500 people, will have to abandon their
homes and fields to make room for the strip mine. Tiomin is
offering around $120 per acre of land in resettlement
compensation to those who hold title deeds, plus annual rent
of $30 per acre.
In an interview
with
MSNBC.com,
Francois Goutier,
the resident
representative of
Tiomin Kenya
Ltd., stressed that
most farmers who
have proof of
ownership have
signed the
resettlement deal.

While critics complain that the compensation is far
below market rate, farmers with title deeds may actually
count themselves lucky. Kenya’s land ownership system is
in disarray, and most of the farmers in Kwale — even those
who inherited their lands from parents and grandparents,
like Frank Mutua — lack title deeds, and will get no money
at all.
In an interview with MSNBC.com, Francois Goutier,
the resident representative of Tiomin Kenya Ltd., stressed
that most farmers who have proof of ownership have signed
the resettlement deal. But, she said, “we cannot sign a land
agreement with someone who does not have a title deed.”
Juma Suleiman, 60, who lives in the small village of
Nguluku with his three wives and 14 children, is one of the
“squatters” who will be forced off his land. “I have nowhere
to go,” says Suleiman, who was born in the area. “I will not
leave this land. They will have to kill me first.”

ECOSYSTEM FEARS
Environmental activists, meanwhile, warn of serious
damage to the fragile ecosystem. Tiomin plans to extract
water from a local river, reducing water supplies to a nearby
forest that is home to a unique blend of flora and fauna. The
company also plans to build a new seaport at the coastal
village of Shimoni — near one of Kenya’s few marine parks
— from where it will ship its titanium. That construction
could rip apart sensitive coral reefs.

An environmental
assessment report
carried out by a South
African firm, Coastal &
Environmental Services,
found the project to be
environmentally sound.
But this report has also
come under criticism
from the World
Conservation Union,
which says the study
was funded by Tiomin
and was thus not
independent.
Another major
environmental concern
is the disposal of
radioactive waste, a byproduct of titanium production. “The
levels that we’re dealing with are so low that people should
not be worried,” says Goutier. “They’re equal to X-rays in
a hospital, not Chernobyl.” Still, she is not able to rule out
accidents.

CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS

Kenya is desperate for foreign investment. The country
attracted only $20 million from foreign companies last year.
The $150 million Tiomin project could become the biggest
single foreign investment ever made in Kenya. But doubts
persist about the real benefits to the local economy. Goutier
points to the creation of 200 jobs, but that sounds petty
when considering that 20 times as many people will have to
abandon their homes.
Still, the Kenyan government is firmly behind Tiomin,
fueling speculations in some corners that top-level
government officials may have vested interests in the
project. Kenya is among the world’s most corrupt
countries, according to Transparency International, a
corruption watchdog group.