BCL Limited, originally founded as ''Bamangwato Concessions Limited'', was a mining company in
Selebi-Phikwe
Selebi-Phikwe (also spelt ''Selibe Phikwe'') is a mining town located in the Central District of Botswana. It had a population of 42,488 in 2022. The town is an administrative district, separate from the surrounding Central District.
Mining
...
in
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
. It was formed in 1956 to mine
copper
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
.
In 1959, an agreement, signed by African Authority Rasebolai Kgamane, along with Seretse Khama and Oteng Mphoeng, allowed BCL to prospect. In 2004 the company changed its name to ''BCL Limited'' as
parastatal
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...
s in Botswana were separated from connections to tribes,
Bamangwato
The Bamangwato (more correctly BagammaNgwato, and also referred to as the BaNgwato or Ngwato) is one of the eight "principal" Tswana chieftaincies of Botswana. The modern Bamangwato formed in the Central Serowe, Palapye & Mahalapye District, wit ...
being one of them.
Following lower market prices the mine was shut down in 2016, making over 5.000 people unemployed.
[{{Cite web , date=2016-10-19 , title=6,000 jobs to go at state-owned mines in Botswana , url=https://www.industriall-union.org/over-6000-jobs-to-go-at-state-owned-mines-in-botswana , access-date=2022-05-29 , website=IndustriALL , language=en]
References
Mining companies of Botswana