Concern over planned titanium mine

Plans for a titanium mine in southeast Kenya, approved by the Kenyan government last week, could lead to environmental damage and adversely affect the lives of people, local rights groups warned on Tuesday.

"On one hand, we have farmers who are directly affected and who are not receiving compensation at a fair market price," Khalif Khelef, Programme Officer for Muslims for Human Rights, told IRIN.

"On the other hand, we have the indigenous population who has totally been left behind. We have graves that belong to the Digo community and sacred lands. How will they compensate for the loss of this?"

According to a BBC report, the Kenyan government on 4 July granted an environmental permit to the Canadian-based company Tiomin Resources allowing it to begin talks for a mining lease in an area near the town of Kwale, 65 km southwest of Mombasa. About 450 families - some 5,000 people - would have to abandon their homes to make room for the mine and a processing plant if the plans went ahead, the BBC said.

But according to Tiomin, the population in the surrounding area of Kwale, would derive "substantial benefits" from the development of the mine, including improved infrastructure such as schooling and health services.

"We are extremely pleased that we have received this approval and believe it is further indication of solid support from the local community for the development of the Kwale titanium mine in Kenya," Tiomin President Jean-Charles Potvin said in a recent statement.

In March, the High Court in Mombasa dismissed a lawsuit filed by three farmers against Tiomin Resources Inc. over compensation issues, and lifted an injunction preventing fieldwork, according to a statement from Tiomin.

Hassan Umar, a local human rights activist, told IRIN there was still some uncertainty over the environmental consequences of the project. "Right now, all we know is that independent environmental studies directly contradict results of the Tiomin environmental study and that farmers are being offered compensation at less that market price," he said. "There is no guarantee on the benefit of this project to the local community and the national economy."

Much of the land in the 64 square km concession area will be strip-mined, exposing mineral deposits up to 30 metres in depth, the non-governmental organisation Mining Watch Canada said on its website.

Although the company plans to return the land to its owners after 21 years, farmland in the area might no longer be able to support arable crops because of changes in the soil structure, the BBC added.

Human rights organisations in the mining area - including Action Aid, the Legal Aid Centre and the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims - have formed a group called the Coast Rights Forum (CRF) to address compensation and environmental issues.

"CRF is not opposed to titanium mining at the Coast as long as it is done in a more transparent and responsive way," CRF said in a statement released on 13 July.

It called on the Kenyan government to rescind the environmental licence, and for a second environmental impact assessment to be carried out.