Base Resources to hire 300 at Kwale mine with 13-year lifespan

By PAUL WAFULA

Australian firm Base Resources is hiring 300 Kenyans to work on the Sh76.5 billion Titanium mining project in Kwale at the coast. This is, however, a far cry from the 4,417 applicants seeking jobs that have registered on its database at the Kinondo registration office.

The mining firm also has another growing list of 1,007 applicants at its Likoni office waiting on the line, mirroring the country’s demand for jobs.

The managing director, Tim Carstens, told Job Centre that the vacancies will be in techincal, non-techichical, skilled as well as semi-skilled categories. About 1,000 casuals will be engaged in the construction phase expected to be completed by mid next year. “Once in operation, the permanent staff establishment will be 350, but the employment multiplier effect will create an additional 1,000 jobs in the service and related sectors,” Mr Carstens said.

The jobs on offer include mining engineers, geologists, surveyors, maintenance engineers, process engineers, mobile equipment operators, plant operators and supervisors. Artisans such as electricians, fitters, boilermakers and mechanics will also find jobs at the mine.

Other jobs on offer include labaratory, environmental and IT technicians, accountants, human resource, procurement, shipping, safety and community relations officers. The firm is employing about 50 other expatriates to take the technical jobs that it says cannot be found locally.

“Given the size and technologically complex nature of the mineral sands project, the first of its kind in Kenya, combined with the current shortage of local skills and experience in the sector, Base finds it necessary to employ a significant contigent of specialist expatriate skills during construction and early stages of operation,” Carstens said. The majority of the expatriates will be from Australia and South Africa.

Most of Kenyans expected to be employed in the firm will be from Kwale and Mombasa counties. The life of the mine is 13 years, but the firm hopes to continue mining in other parts of the country, including Kilifi, in the next five years.

This comes at a time when pressure is mounting on Kenya’s infant mining industry to create local jobs and pass on the skills to locals.

“The criteria against which expatriates are selected and recruited is a demonsrated ability to transfer skills to subordinates,” Carstens said. He says this requirement is also written in employment contracts, and will be  part of mentoring programme designed to transfer skills to Kenyan staff as quickly as possible. The firm expects to export Sh21billion ($250 million) worth of the mineral per year from November next year.

When completed, the project is expected to produce three minerals from the sand—ilmenite, rutile and zircon. Available forecasts show that it will extract  about 333,000 tonnes of ilmenite a year, another 80,000 tonnes of rutile per year, which represents 14 per cent of global output, and a further 30,000 tonnes of zircon.

The firm hopes to ship at least 43 trucks of the mineral from the site to a jetty it is constructing per day once the actual mining and processing starts. This will create jobs for drivers and mechanics.