Kenya Fluorspar Company

History

Fluorspar deposits were first discovered in 1967 in Kenya's Kerio Valley region, in present day Elgeyo-Marakwet county. The Kenyan government established the Fluorspar Company of Kenya to exploit them on a large scale. To carry out the mining and exploration, the government acquired 3,664 hectares (9,000 acres) from approximately 1400 families in the Kerio Valley region.

In 1997, the company had become insolvent due to tough trading conditions since China had entered the fluorspar market, increasing competition causing unsustainable falling prices. The removal of the export compensation mechanism by the Government of Kenya in line with Kenya’s Economic Reforms 1996-1998, was also a key contributor to the company’s collapse.

In accordance with the Economic Reforms the Fluorspar Company of Kenya was privatized, Canadian entrepreneur, Charles Field-Marsham, purchased Kenya Fluorspar Company following an open tender process and revived Fluorspar mining in the country. Under the 1987 Mining Act the newly formed privatized Kenya Fluorspar Company Limited was granted a Mining Operating Licence and Special Mining Lease for a period of 21 years ending in March 2018, entitling the company to carry out all mining operations and exploratory drilling in the 3,664 hectares mine lease area.

By 2011 the Kenya Fluorspar Company was producing up to 100,000 -130,000 tonnes of fluorspar per year with breakthroughs to new leading European and Far East manufacturers, and a total work force of grown to 400 employees.

Citing weak global fluorspar demands, the company scaled down its operations in 2015 and temporarily stopped them in 2016. Its operations came to a halt at the end of the company’s Mining Licence and 21-year Special Mining Lease in March 2018, which coincided with a collapse in the worldwide fluorspar market, making operations unsustainable for the Kenyan mine. This left South Africa and Morocco as the only remaining African countries active in the mining of the mineral. The Kenya Fluorspar company did not renew its mining licence and lease and was wound up in compliance with the laws and regulations of the Mining Act.