Few people know that in the mineral industry, Kenya is one of the last unexplored countries in Africa, the "sleeping giant" with an enormous potential for various minerals, including base metals, industrial minerals, gemstones, and gold. The Lake Victoria Gold Fields, which are the main source of Tanzania's wealth, do extend across the border into South-Western Kenya, although gold is also found in different rock formations as far North as Turkana District. Presently, gold is mined by informal artisan miners, and the full value of these mineral resources will never be realized until significantly more exploration work is carried out and large modern mines are developed.
IGE Kenya Ltd (formerly named Sebimu Exploration and Mining Co) is a mineral exploration company with a strong focus on gold. The company is a subsidiary of the International Gold Exploration group, a Swedish public company listed on the Oslo stock exchange. International Gold Exploration currently operates exploration projects for nickel in Sweden, for diamonds in Angola, and for gold in Kenya. Through IGE Kenya Ltd / Sebimu, the group has been present in Kenya for over 10 years.
IGE Kenya Ltd currently employs 24 people including 4 geologists, and several technicians specialized in exploration methods. The company puts a great deal of emphasis in training, and also regularly takes interns among University of Nairobi geology students to help building the necessary capacity.
Over the last 5 years, IGE Kenya Ltd has carried out an intensive exploration program on its licenses, collecting and assaying over 3,000 soil and sediment samples, studying satellite images, doing geophysical surveying and geological mapping. The company has now reached the critical stage where, through drilling and trenching operations, what is just an "anomaly" in geologist jargon will (or will not) be confirmed to be an actual gold deposit, and a potential gold mine. In 2009, the company has so far drilled about 3,800 m of bore holes and dug 1,300 m of exploration trenches. Thousands of samples and associated data are collected for assaying. The results allow the company's geologists to re-direct the program towards a potential discovery. Exploration is capital intensive, and entails a very high risk level, as success cannot be guaranteed. Between 2005 and today, IGE Kenya Ltd has invested 245 million Kenya Shillings in its exploration activities, and is the only gold exploration company that has committed significant funds and resources towards exploration in Kenya this year, despite the crisis. IGE Kenya Ltd is mainly active in Nyanza, Trans-Mara, West Pokot and Turkana.
Since 2007, IGE Kenya Ltd's sister company Kilimapesa Gold (Pty) Ltd has been developing a small gold mine near Lolgorien in Trans Mara District. The company employs 82 Kenyans, more than 90% of them being from the local community. 238 Million Kenya Shillings have been invested in this development project so far. The operation has now reached the ramp-up stage, and when operational is expected to produce about 3,000 ounces of gold per year. This is a very modest-sized operation compared to Tanzania's large gold mines which produce 100,000 to 200,000 ounces per year or more, but it is a very promising first step to restart Kenya's mining industry and to assess on a pilot scale the potential problems linked to investing in mining in the country.
Meanwhile, IGE Kenya Ltd continues its exploration work with the goal of identifying and bringing to development gold resources that would sustain a production of at least 30,000 ounces per year. Operating in a country with little mining history comes with challenges, including a poor legislative framework, security of tenure issues, lack of qualified workforce, and absence of basic exploration service providers such as drilling contractors and certified assaying laboratories. But it also potentially comes with great rewards considering the enormous mineral potential of Kenya.
