Mantra Resources will begin uranium mining in the Selous Game Reserve late next year. The Australian mining company will be operating in the south of Tanzania on a UNESCO heritage site. The wildlife sanctuary is the second largest in the African continent spread over 54,600 square kilometers.
The actual mining will take place in the southern part of the Selous Game Reserve which has about 24.4 million kg of uranium oxide deposits. The mining is due to begin in late 2012 once many of the UNESCO Heritage Committee’s conditions have been met.
The Tanzanian Energy and Minerals Minister William Ngeleja said that the conditions included conducting environmental and social impact assessments and securing authorisation from regulatory bodies. A team from UNESCO would also be visiting Tanzania for the verification while the national environment authorities will be examining the proposed operations before giving clearances.
Ezekiel Maige the Tanzanian Tourism and Natural Resources Minister said that UNESCO Heritage Committee that met in Paris recently gave Tanzania conditional approval to mine in the Selous Game Reserve.
He also announced last week that they were planning to build a road through the Serengeti Park which is another UN heritage site. Environmentalists have said that the road would disrupt the annual migration of millions of wildebeest and zebras from the Serengeti to the Maasai Mara in Kenya. Plans are also afoot to build a soda ash plant at Lake Natron in the north of the country, the only nesting ground for flamingoes in east Africa.