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GV TOP V Mining area
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SV & CU Trucks being driven into mine tunnel (2 shots)
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SV Foreign technical experts guiding trucks (2 shots)
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SV & CU Miners lighting lamps and entering mine shaft (4 shots)
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SV Sign 'Harambee Gallery' TILT DOWN to Kenyatta plaque
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SV ZOOM TO CU.. Geologists inspect and measure core samples
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CU Geologists looking at mineral vein from cylindrical sample
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SV Loaded trucks out of tunnel (3 shots)
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SV Miners emptying trucks (2 shots)
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SCU Geologists looking at mined rock (2 shots)
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Initials ES. 1710 ES. 1745



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The financing of silver mining in Kenya was assured by an agreement signed in Nairobi on Thursday (April 12) between the Government-controlled Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) and 5 Banks. It provides for a GBP450,000 (US$1,080,000) loan to the large new silver mining complex at Kilanguni, 50 miles north of Mombasa.

Although mining only started recently, silver exports will be on their way by the end of July. Machinery for extracting and processing the silver is already installed at the Kilanguni mine. Kenya, whose mineral resources have previously been under-exploited, will eventually gain about GBP2 million a year in foreign exchange from the project.

The ICDC holds 51 per cent of the shares in the complex and a Rumanian firm, Geomin, who are providing technical aid and advisers, hold the remaining 49 per cent.

SYNOPSIS: Financing of the new silver mining complex at Kilanguni, north of Mombasa, is now assured with news of a loan of almost half a million pounds sterling. Five banks are making the loan under an agreement signed on Thursday.

A Rumanian company, Geomin, is providing technical assistance and holds 49 per cent of the shares. The Government controls the remaining 51 per cent.

Mr. Matu Wamae, of the Government-controlled Development Corporation, said at the signing that Kenya must train engineers and scientists to mine and process her mineral wealth. It had so far been badly under-exploited. He added that Kenya also needed the co-operation of foreigners.

President Kenyatta inaugurated the mining complex in January last year.

Two million tons of lead and silver are reckoned to be in the area. Core-samples are still being taken. but mining itself also began recently.

Exports, which start at the end of the July, will earn some two million pounds in foreign exchange every year. Kilanguni, in Kenya's Coast Province, is only about 50 miles north of Mombasa and the Port of Kilindini.

Eight hundred people will eventually be employed at the complex. Having mined the silver-ore, they must separate it from other less valuable minerals such as lead. Machinery for processing the ore is being installed at Kilanguni mine.

The project is taking shape at an opportune time. World silver prices are expected to increase from their present low level in the next two years.

Because her mining industry is comparatively new, Kenya has learned from the past experience of other African countries. By taking a majority share-holding from the outset, she has assured herself of a fair share of profits when the mine is producing at peak levels.