Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana has awarded a 15-year license to a Canadian firm, Giyani Metals, to mine manganese, a metal used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles.
According to a statement from Giyani Metals, the K-Hill project will produce battery-grade manganese. Mining will take place in Kanye, 90 kilometers (56 miles) southwest of Gaborone.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lemogang Kwape, the area's member of parliament, told VOA he expects good things from the project.
"It is a project that envisages to mine a product that will revolutionize clean power. It is also a project that will develop Kanye and Botswana," Kwape said. "Giyani management promised that there will be some processing that will be done in situ. By doing processing, you are adding value, which is in line with the president's objective of adding value to products from Botswana."
The Ministry of Energy and Minerals granted Giyani Metals the mining license, which is subject to multiple renewals.
In a country heavily reliant on diamonds for its economy, Minister of Energy and Minerals Lefoko Moagi said the government is accelerating research-based exploration of minerals.
"The ministry continues to advance mineral discoveries through research in order to grow and expand the country's economic status through exploration, mining, manufacturing and processing of various mineral commodities," Moagi said.
The Botswana manganese project has a net value of $984 million, with an estimated project life span of 57 years.
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Tshepiso Masilonyane, programs officer at the Botswana Climate Change Network, said manganese will play a key role if the world is to move away from fossil fuels.
"The manganese project is extremely important for the green energy transition," Masilonyane said. "It is a critical component in battery technology, particularly in the production of lithium-ion batteries that are used in electric vehicles but also in grade-level electricity distribution, particularly the energy storage systems."
Masilonyane urged Botswana to play a bigger role in the green energy value chain.
"By becoming a key supplier of battery-grade manganese, Botswana can position itself as an important player in the renewable energy value chain helping to power electric vehicles, the solar energy storage technologies, as well as other green technologies," Masilonyane said. "But we think beyond extraction, it is going to be very important for us to focus on value addition as early as now."
According to the International Energy Agency, global electric car sales reached 14 million in 2023, a 35% increase from 2022.
As a result, metals such as manganese are in high demand - and Botswana is in position to benefit from the boom.
