Selebi- Phikwe (F 6)

Name: Selebi- Phikwe
from wikipedia:

Location of Selibe-Phikwe in BotswanaSelebi-Phikwe (also spelt Selibe Phikwe) is a mining town located in the Central District of Botswana. It had a population of 49,849 in 2001 which is now estimated to have risen to c.52000. Nickel mining commenced in 1973 and has been the main activity since. The complex includes a mine and a smelter. All operations are now deep mining.

Originally there were two tiny places called Selebi and Phikwe, which straddled a large undiscovered deposit of copper and nickel in the area. When the mineral wealth of the area was discovered in the 1960s a mine and township was built in the woodland between the places with the combined name of Selebi-Phikwe.

The main source of employment is the Bamangwato Concessions Ltd. (BCL) mine which excavates mixed copper-nickel ore from several shafts in deep and opencast mines. The opencast pit is now unused. Ore is transported from the shaft by rail for smelting. Surprising to some the locomotives used are steam powered, having been bought from National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and South African Railway (SAS).

BCL only intended to stay in operation until 2010 and more recently 2013. The nickel price at a high in April 2008, justified further exploration and it is now expected that mining operations will continue to 2020 and perhaps beyond. It's not clear if new shafts will be opened, but the present shafts will be exhausted in a few years time. The mine used to, and may still, have the longest cable-belt system in the Southern hemisphere.

The activities of BCL causes a lot of damage among the local community by polluting the environment and causing crackholes damaging houses and the local graveyard. These "site-effects" as they are being called, take place without any financial compensation to the local people.

A small coal fired powerstation was built along with the mine, to meet the electricity needs of the mining operation and the surrounding area. Until the late 1980s, this was the only powerstation in Botswana. It was closed down some years ago when the Morupule Power Station began to produce power. Most of the electricity demand was met by importing electricity from South Africa.

The town itself has a principal shopping mall, four in-town hotels (Stonehouse Lodge, Bosele, Syringa Lodge and Travel Inn), several guest houses and a number of serviced apartments complexes. It has a small airport which only operates during daylight hours and does not have refuelling facilities. It has a technical college for artisan level training and a College of Applied Arts & Technology is about to be built.

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