Africa-Press – Kenya. President William Ruto will head to Taita Taveta on Friday afternoon to commission the Gemstone Centre.
The contractor is said to have handed over the centre back to the county in 2028 but it has never been opened.
The delayed opening of Voi Gemstone Value Addition Centre has hurt small-scale miners in Taita Taveta.
In April this year, miners said the delay in the opening of the multimillion-shilling facility had opened doors for middlemen to exploit them for lack of a reliable market.
The centre is set to benefit at least 1,500 artisanal and small-scale miners across the mineral-rich county.
Taita Taveta is endowed with minerals and precious stones ranging from Tsavorite, ruby, chrome tourmaline, yellow tourmaline, red garnets, green garnets and Tanzanite.
Others are manganese, iron ore, marble and limestone.
The construction of the Sh60 million gemology centre started in 2015 and ended in 2017, but there has been little progress in the processing of gemstones since then.
It is the only facility in Kenya where value addition for minerals takes place before miners sell their products.
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