Botswana Geoscience Institute’s multimillion-pula project aimed at interpreting and assessing Aeromagnetic data in Northern Botswana is on schedule and budget. This project, undertaken at a cost of P10,125,670.00 million and funded through the Development Fund of National Development Plan 11 (NDP 11) is primarily evaluating areas of mineral potential such as base metals, rare earth metals, precious metals and platinum group metals (PGMs).
At a workshop to review project progress recently, BGI incoming CEO, Olefile Mashabila, was pleased with advancement to-date, including the deliverables of the project. This project commenced on 10 July 2020 and it is scheduled to complete in February 2022, which is now two months from today.
The project is undertaken by BGI in partnership with a consortium comprising Paterson, Grant and Watson Limited (PGW), a Toronto-based Canadian company and Botswana companies Water Resources Consultants (Pty) Limited (WRC) and Sky Tract (Pty)
Limited.
The workshop was very critical for the BGI team to not only interact in person for the first time with the Canadian consultant and their local counterparts but give feedback to the consultant and do a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) before the product deliverables are completed. BGI is continuing with a review of geological map products and associated digital products for quality assurance before final production and delivery.
Due to COVID-19, the Government of Botswana rationalised use of the development budget and deferred some national projects. This project, because of its importance, was retained due to its relevance to a number of the Vision 2036 goals, in particular, the nation’s aspiration of Sustainable Economic Development, Human and Social Development and Sustainable Environment.
The project will result in a revised National Geological Map of Botswana, a better understanding of mineral systems and provision of value-added products. It will go a long way in satisfying the requirements of BGI customers in the exploration/mining sector in particular, academia and applied research, thereby impacting the lives of Batswana and the nation at large positively.