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 ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
. It was formed in 1956 to mine
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) 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 pinkis ...
.
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 government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
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. They ruled over a majority Bakalanga population (the largest ethnic group in Central Dis ...
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