Barrick opens mining academy at the closed-down Buzwagi Mine
From left, Barrick president and chief executive Mark Bristow, Kahama District Commissioner Mboni Mhita and Minister of Minerals Anthony Mavunde during the opening of the Barrick Academy at the old Buzwagi mine over the weekend. PHOTO | THE CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT
What you need to know:
- The opening of the academy is part of a large strategy to turn Buzwagi into a Special Economic Zone with industries that can create 3,000 jobs annually and generate $150,000 each year from service levies to local authorities
Kahama. Barrick Gold Corporation has officially opened a training academy at the old Buzwagi mine, in line with its mine closure objectives of leaving a positive legacy.
The Barrick Academy is designed to offer tailor-made training programmes aimed at developing the company’s frontline managers to grow both as individuals and as leaders in their fields.
It seeks to equip them with the skills to manage their teams more effectively and to improve performance.
Specifically, the Barrick Academy will be training more than 2,000 foremen, supervisors and superintendents from the Africa and Middle East region in the next 24 months, according to Barrick’s chief operating officer for the Africa and Middle East region, Sebastiaan Bock.
He told a gathering over the weekend that the company was also gearing up to include its contractors and expand the curriculum to cover wider disciplines, including financial leadership, advanced computer literacy and safety courses.
The opening of the Barrick Academy follows the construction of an airport terminal at the Buzwagi airstrip in January this year, which has paved the way for scheduled airline services.
The terminal can serve more than 200 passengers at a time.
“The airport terminal and Academy form part of Barrick’s plan to turn Buzwagi into a Special Economic Zone (SEZ),” said Bock.
A feasibility study commissioned in 2021 showed that the creation of the SEZ had the potential to replace the mine as the region’s economic driver and could sustainably create 3,000 jobs annually.
It could also generate more than $150,000 each year from service levies for the local municipality and deliver approximately $4.5 million in employment taxes a year.
The government of Tanzania approved the conversion of the mine into a SEZ through a Government Notice that was issued in February this year.
A number of investors have started the process of setting up manufacturing industries inside this area.
“How we close our mines is just as important to us as how we build and operate them. Our Buzwagi mine was a significant economic powerhouse in the region for nearly 15 years before it poured its last gold in 2021.
