Africa-Press – Botswana. The decision to invest in Tati Nickel Mine by NIU Invest, a European investment equity company domiciled in Germany and Britain signals investor confidence in Botswana, its predictable economic climate and well established mining regulatory framework.
His Excellency President Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, expressed these sentiments while receiving an NIU Invest delegation led by Principal Investor, Mr Cevdet Caner at the Office of the President on Tuesday.
He said he appreciated the company’s interest in investing capital into the Francistown-based mine.
“We want to thank you for your investment, we deeply appreciate it. You are very welcome with your capital to Botswana. You will find us as we have pledged to be, we are predictable, honest, sincere, very accommodative, and we believe in dialogue. We are abhorrent of deals that are outside rules, and in our legal framework, no one is above the law, and we are committed to protecting private property rights,” Dr Masisi said.
He further outlined Botswana’s track record of industriously providing the platform for private capital investment to flourish and of government partnering with the private sector in the mining industry since independence.
“We have a wonderful record of working with the private sector. In our minerals legislation, there is an option for government to acquire a stake or equity in any firm, we can exercise that right, we do it procedurally and judiciously if we do, and we are happy to let the private sector be the operator. We have a historical background with a multinational company, De Beers, very successfully for 50 years,” the President said.
He expressed the desire to see NIU Invest succeed at Tati Nickel, adding that the financial success of private companies allowed government to reap the benefit of increased tax revenue that allowed the state to finance public projects such as roads, schools, and health care provision.
Mr Caner thanked government, the Ministry of Minerals and Energy and the Botswana Trade and Investment Centre, who helped to facilitate the investment.
He said they signed an asset purchase agreement, and were pleased with the quality of the infrastructure maintained at the Tati facility.
Mr Caner said they had met the top three banks in the country as they worked on establishing their Botswana operations.
In an interview with BOPA after the meeting, the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Honourable Mr Lefoko Moagi, said after an open bidding contest, NIU Invest came across as the most viable investor in the mine.
“These European investors have shown great interest in the Tati Nickel mine, Francistown.
After the open bidding process for the mine, the liquidator, supervised by the Registrar of the High Court, confirmed that the NIU Invest bid was most tenable and would be of benefit to Batswana. They will be looking for those to work with locally, which means job creation,” Mr Moagi said.
The minister added that during the eight years that the Tati Nickel mine had been closed, new mining technologies came to the fore globally and NIU Invest would be able to utilise such to resuscitate the mine, and within a duration of six to 18 months, the mine could be operational.
Tati Nickel Mining Company was previously owned by Norilsk Nickel (85 per cent shareholding) and the Botswana government (15 per cent), operating the Selkirk and Phoenix mines in Francistown.
Norilsk sold its stake to BCL Limited in 2016, and the latter company was liquidated around that period.
A process of bidding thereafter followed for the mine and its comprehensive asset portfolio which includes the mine fleet, processing plants, storage and warehouses, as well as workshops and maintenance facilities.
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