Miners at the Lolupe and Naduat Gold quarry in Turkana North have received a donation of a crushing machine as part of Turkana County Governments’ efforts towards supporting the sector.
This was revealed by the County Director for Mineral Resources Stella Opakas who said that the donation would relieve the artisanal miners of the cost of having to hire a similar machine hence reducing cost overheads.
“The machine which principally performs the herculean task of stone crushing from which residual deposits of gold are extracted will also reduce the energy expended during the manual undertaking of the same,” Opakas added.
The Director clarified that the donation was executed through the chairman’s office of the Turkana County Association of Artisanal miners with firm instructions to prioritize women engaged in artisanal mining to boost their participation in the sector.
While receiving the donation, Joseph Ekiru the Chair of the County Artisanal Miners Association promised to ensure equity in access and use of the machine by all association members.
Ekiru urged the County Government to take advantage of the large deposits of a variety of mineral resources to encourage more persons to join the sector.
Present during the handing over of the machine were Duncan Kimwele (Deputy Director, Mineral Resources), Philemon Lokulan (Chief Procurement officer), and Peter Lopelem (Accountant).
