Kenya witnesses 5.9 pct rise in mining, records over 30 bn KSh from last year

Kenya has produced an average gigantic amount of 30.4 billion shillings representing a 5.9 percent year on year increase, which is mainly driven by growth in output of soda ash and diatomite.

Titanium accounted for a third of the total value of output, in addition to increases in the value of the output of soda ash and gold. This emerged as Base Titanium announced reduced production during the first quarter of 2019.

Kenya is endowed with a ray of mineral resources key among being soda ash, gold, diatomite, fluorspar, titanium ore and gemstone. In the last year, Kenya observed a growth of 5.9 percent that generated a total of 30.4 billion shillings in revenue from the mining sector.

The major boosters of the growth include soda ash and diatomite minerals whose turnovers were recorded at 339 million tons and 1.5 million tons respectively. Alternatively, the report indicates a massive contribution of the titanium ore minerals which gave a major boost to the total performance of the mining sector, Titanium ore minerals accounted for 66.1 per cent of the total value of output, as reported by KBC Channel's Kenya's Watching.

The market price of ore minerals augmented from 18.536 billion shillings in 2017 to 20.09 billion shillings in 2018. This is despite a remarkable decline in production of the mineral ores where the amount of titanium produced in 2018 reduced from 643 million tons in 2017 to 597 million tons in 2018.

On the other hand, the production of titanium ore minerals, according to the quarterly report from the Base Titanium as of March 2019, dwindled from 108,465 tons in Q4 of 2018 to 87,179 tons during Q1 of 2019. "The main focus for the first quarter continued to be on maximizing mineral recoveries under a high tonnage, low-grade regime, together with progressing preparations for relocating mining operations to the South Dune ore body in June 2019," Base Titanium reveals.

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