Friday, May 02, 2025
By Siago Cece
Correspondent – Nation Media Group
A mineral-rich forest in Lunga Lunga, Kwale County has become the recent cause of tension in the coastal county with residents raising fear over the exploitation of the trillions-worth rare earths.
The Mrima Hill complex, known to host one of the largest rare earths minerals globally, has drawn attention from potential investors, with two Australian firms recently applying for a permit through the National Mining Corporation (NAMICO) to prospect the rare earth elements, niobium, phosphate and manganese in the forest.
Speaking to journalists recently in Kwale, Mining Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai said several other companies had also applied for prospecting of the Hill, including Base Titanium, which is now completing its operations in Kwale County.
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Residents say they’re not opposed to prospecting or mining, but investors must conduct due diligence by placing community concerns at the heart of any plan and provide proper compensation for any anticipated damage.
But Kaya elders in Kwale have expressed fear over losing their century-old traditions following the anticipated exploitation of niobium and other rare earth minerals found in Mrima Hill Forest in Lunga Lunga, Kwale County.
The elders and traditional medicine men say the forest includes up to seven shrines, commonly known as Kayas, and indigenous trees that have been used for more than 1,300 years to provide physical and spiritual treatment to locals in the area and beyond.
Read: Why mineral prospecting has left Kwale, Kilifi residents worried
Ali Suleiman, National Chair for Traditional Healers and Herbalists, said elders and natural healers are now anxious over the possible loss of an important tool of their trade and culture.
He said before the government decides on who to be given the licence, locals should be at the centre of the negotiations that directly involve Mrima Hill.
According to him, the forest has indigenous trees, which, if destroyed, will be lost and not recovered.
“Before anything happens, we want to be close and give our ideas about this area that is a sanctuary to us. Our greatest fear is that any investor will not just work around the forest, but will have access deep into the forest where the trees and kayas are,” said Mzee Suleiman.
He said locals will not accept that the shrines be destroyed and kaya elders be blocked from accessing it as it is with several mining sites in the country.
“In case that there will be minerals that have to be mined, we want a section within the forest where we will practice our work and where can conserve our trees,” he added, saying most healers travel from far and wide to get the medicine from Mrima Hill Forest.
Masoud Suleiman Mwarizo, the vice chairperson of Kaya Mrima, said they are aware that the minerals are found where the shrines are located within the forest, and would not want the area to be tampered before approval of the locals.
“If there is an investor interested in the minerals, the government should let him or her (talk) to us, from then, we shall explain our demands and the required rites that they should obey before getting to destroy our places of worship,” said Mr Mwarizo.
He further explained that proper cleansing should also done in the area.
He said elders would want to be compensated, as this will not only damage their spiritual work, but also indigenous trees that they have conserved for years and generations.
Besides the traditional, a majority of the locals have also raised concern over possible relocation from their ancestral land.
Mary Mwikali, said proper due diligence should be done by investors, who should not undercompensate for the land like it has been for other communities affected by mining.
Mrima Hill Community Forest Association (CFA), legal group responsible for conserving the forest, said they are alarmed with the number of people approaching as section of residents seeking their permits to access the forest.
“We have had people claiming to be from Mrima Hill Company, who came seeking for our consent and signatures for what was not clear to us. The exercise was also being pushed by some government officials. This is unacceptable,” he said.
“We have written a letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Mining to address our concerns and hope that he will be available to meet us.”
Read: Residents of Kwale dirt poor in spite of the mineral billions underground
He said the government should put the interests of the residents first as it continues with its plans to exploit the minerals.
“We have always known that there are minerals here, but we formed this association with community members that protect and conserve this forest because of the direct benefits that we get from it such as clean air, rainwater for our farming activities and ecotourism,” said Mr Abdalla.
Dominic Mwarizo, a communications officer at Search for Common Grounds, a peacebuilding organisation, said the shrines are important in the locals’ culture.
“We understand that minerals and the forest are key resources for both the government and the people. Our aim is to promote harmony while making the locals aware so that they know how to benefit from the natural resources in line with the law,” said Mr Mwarizo.
Lunga Lunga Sub-county Assistant County Commissioner Robert Shunet said any activity concerning the gazetted forest will be done under the law.
He asked the locals to create groups that will help them strengthen their negotiations and gain from government opportunities.
Mr Kimtai, the Mining Principal Secretary, said several companies had applied for prospecting of the hill, and the government was willing to work with investors and at the same time have the communities benefit.
“We have a legal framework to support investors. We also work with communities to see that they support mining. The community will also not be left mining according to the Mining Act 2016,” said Mr Kimtai.
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Kenya’s $100 billion hidden mineral deposits
Saturday, July 20, 2013 — updated on August 05, 2020
What you need to know:
- Mrima Hill, in the coastal county of Kwale, has one of the top five rare earth deposits in the world. The area also has niobium deposits estimated to be worth $35 billion.
- Kenyan government will earn three per cent royalties from the nobium project and five per cent from the rare earths mining.
- The global demand for niobium, used to strengthen steel, is rising rapidly, with Mrima Hill now positioned in the world’s top six deposits.
- If Cortec’s lab results are confirmed, Kenya will serve the hungry global market including Africa that is scrambling for the meagre supply of the element.
Kenya’s profile as a potential top rare earth minerals producer rose a rung higher after mineral explorer Cortec announced it had found deposits worth $62.4 billion.
Mrima Hill, in the coastal county of Kwale, has one of the top five rare earth deposits in the world. The area also has niobium deposits estimated to be worth $35 billion.
“This is by far the largest mineral deposit in Kenya and the find at Mrima Hill will make Kenya one of the largest rare earth producers in the world,” said David Anderson, managing director of Cortec Kenya Mining.
The Kenyan government will earn three per cent royalties from the nobium project and five per cent from the rare earths mining. Under the Constitution, 80 per cent of these earnings will go to the central government, 15 per cent to Kwale County and five per cent to local residents.
A global scarcity of rare earth in a market largely controlled by China has kept prices high, with Japan, which accounts for a third of all global demand, hard-hit by scarcity and looking to diversify its supply sources.
China has been supplying 90 per cent or more of the world’s rare earth minerals for over a decade, but it is also the largest consumer (72 per cent in 2012).
Cortec, which holds the mining licence for Mrima Hill, has also confirmed a deposit of 680 million kilogrammes of niobium, held in 105 million tonnes at 0.7 per cent niobium pentoxide.
The global demand for niobium, used to strengthen steel, is rising rapidly, with Mrima Hill now positioned in the world’s top six deposits.
Kenya is poised to join Tanzania as a rare earth supplier. In March, Tanzania announced the discovery of lower grade deposits within the Wigu Hill Rare Earth Project located 170 km south-west of Dar es Salaam.
READ: TZ to enter lucrative rare earth minerals trade
If Cortec’s lab results are confirmed, Kenya will serve the hungry global market including Africa that is scrambling for the meagre supply of the element.
With the demand rising in China as its electronics market grows, the country could only produce enough of some elements for its own needs and limit some exports, giving new entrants like Kenya a chance to capture the global market.
What makes them valuable and useful in manufacturing is the way they interact with other elements to get results that each could never achieve alone.
Rare earths have numerous applications in technology and manufacturing. They are used to make high power magnets for lightweight electric motors and MRI imaging.
They are also used in manufacture of car engines and chemical factories, rechargeable batteries and generators for wind turbines. It is red phosphors from rare earth elements that made the colour television possible, and by extension, computer screens, laptops and mobile phones.
These elements are also crucial in military technology, such as in missile guiding systems, jet fighter engines, anti-missile defence, space-based satellites and communication systems.
Demand for electric vehicles is also forecasted to increase in the coming decades as fossil fuels dwindle and consumers become more environmentally conscious, and rare earths are essential in the manufacture of electric engines.
Mining and refining of rare earths has serious environmental concerns if not properly, as they can result in radioactive wastes, and toxic acids are required in extraction.
World demand for rare earth elements is estimated at 136,000 tonnes per year, with global production around 133,600 tonnes in 2010. The difference is covered by previously mined stocks.
World demand is projected to rise to at least 185,000 tonnes annually by 2015. But the global supply of rare earth has been the centre of intrigue and controversy.
Although many of the rare earth metals are not necessarily rare to find — some are more abundant in the earth’s crust than lead, gold, copper or platinum — they often exist in very small concentrations, making extraction difficult. And because of their similar chemical properties, rare earths tend to clump together, usually with radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium, making separation complicated and expensive.
In the 1990s China was accused of using unscrupulous practices, such as unregulated dumping of toxic by-products, to conquer the rare earth market.
As a result, many industrial countries resorted to stock-piling reserves, with searches for alternative sources now going on in several prospecting sites around the world, such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Greenland and the US.
China’s dominance has kept prices high, and has created incentives for miners to flout rules, as global demand surges, with illegal production and smuggling still rampant.
Japan receives 82 per cent of its rare earth elements from China. 40 per cent of China’s exports go to Japan and 18 per cent to the United States. The US, too, is looking to guarantee its future rare earth needs, with a 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) underscoring the need for US to secure an alternative source for the material, critical to US national security and increasingly more important in defence applications.
In March 2012, the Obama Administration announced the filing of a World Trade Organization case against China, citing unfair trade practices in rare earths.
The CRS report indicates that several legislative proposals have been introduced in Congress and the Senate to address the potential of US supply vulnerability and to support domestic production and supply chain development of REEs because of their applications for national security and clean energy technologies.
The announcement of the rare earth find marks yet another milestone for Kenya, which is emerging a hotspot for oil and gas exploration, as well as other minerals like gold. As a result, the country has been attracting big explorers and deep-pocketed financiers keen to tap into mineral, oil and gas wealth.
Early this month, the International Finance Corporation, the private investment arm of the World Bank, said it was investing $60 million into a new UK-based company, Delonex Energy, as part of a $600 million equity line to be provided by the investors of the company to be used for oil and gas exploration in the East African region.
And early this month British oil and gas exploration firm Tullow said that it had doubled its previous estimates of net oil pay from the Ngamia 1 and Twiga South wells, both in Kenya, to 200 metres and 75 metres respectively.
Early last year, Tullow stirred the local market with the announcement of an oil find in Turkana’s Ngamia 1 exploration block. The discovery of 200 metres of oil net pay reignited interest in Kenya’s oil and gas exploration fields especially after US-headquartered Apache Corporation followed suit late last year with announcement of discovery of natural gas pay at Mbawa 1 offshore exploration well.
Base Resources Limited another Australian based company is expected to start mining Titanium in Kwale and has put the total project cost at $300 million.
Cortec said the current combined mineral exports from Kenya are valued at $90 million, and Kwale’s production will boost the minerals sector contribution to $240 million, making minerals the fourth most important export commodity, above coffee.
ALSO READ: Cortec invests $90m to mine niobium in Kenya
Additional Reporting by David Mugwe
SEE ALSO: Case Study in Kenya: The Titanium Issue
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