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ADu ReVIeW

Somaliland solar salt saviour

mere $US10 million is needed for pri- need of critical nutrition sup-
A vate company Salternas Ltd to com- port, including life-saving
plete a DFS on a life-changing solar salt treatment for around 87,000 of
project in Somaliland. these.”
The unlisted Australian entity has al- Solar salt production at a
ready committed $1.8 million to date on rate of 13 mtpa is the initial
a PFS which takes into account a poten- aim for Salternas, which would
tial three-stage project starting with solar require an estimated $US250
salt production, followed by SoP extrac- million to get going.
tion and eventually the construction of An agreement signed be-
desert greenhouses for food production. tween Salternas and the Min-
Salternas chairman Professor Colin istry of Investment & Promo-
Roberts said the food production stage tions, Republic of Somaliland,
– estimated to generate a gross revenue grants the former a 25-year
of $US1.7 billion per year – would ideally lease for sufficient ocean-front Colin Roberts
be managed by locals, trusted partners land to operate the project.
or NGOs. The agreement between private sec- ment and welcoming nature of people in
“This will be a commercial operation, tor and government is renewable for a Somaliland.
however, in periods of drought, food and further 25 years and is perhaps one of “The only news that seems to come
water will be provided to the population the good news stories not being told in out of Somaliland is bad, why is that? Be-
as relief; enough to sustain a million peo- Somaliland. cause they export bad news. There are
ple,” Roberts said. Somaliland is a self-declared inde- 9 million good stories in Somaliland and
“Annually, 6.2 million people are suf- pendent state, but is not given that status we never hear anything about those,”
fering in the Horn of Africa from lack of internationally. Roberts hopes the situa- Roberts said.
nourishment. Overall, some 388,000 tion will change one day and that more
acutely malnourished children are in people will realise the stability of govern- – Mark Andrews

Making tomorrow better than today

eeling the dirt through her shoes is not to create sustainable businesses for com- fruitful, James said B4D’s aim was to cre-
Fonly an exciting part of Karen James’ munities in Africa and the Asia Pacific re- ate enterprises beyond the agriculture
job but also the most effective in her role gion. sector and welcomed the opportunity to
as chief executive of Business for Devel- “Our job is not only to build the agri- work with more mining companies.
opment (B4D). culture sector but create a market for the “We work best when we work with
James started in the position in Janu- produce,” James said. mining companies from the beginning,”
ary after more than 30 years in the fast- B4D has worked closely with Base Re- James said when hosting a roundtable
paced world of IT engineering. sources Ltd in Kenya on the Kwale pro- discussion at Africa Down Under.
Essentially, James’ expertise in sys- ject since 2013, with the end goal being The plight of some junior exploration
tems thinking and engineering will be to eliminate food insecurity and achieve companies constrained by cash means
critical in the not-for-profit’s endeavours sustainable food access and production. the extent to which budgets extend be-
The Kwale pro- yond the drill bit is often limited.
ject involved an James said B4D was assessing other
array of partners streams of funding to support collabora-
integral to the com- tive initiatives and offered companies the
munities’ ability to chance to access B4D’s IP.
now produce sus- “We are going to be humble and share
tainable crops of our IP,” James said, while adding that con-
cotton, chicken necting with communities face-to-face
feed (from cotton was paramount to long-term success.
by-product), poultry, “When you are on the ground you can
cassava, corn, cow- really trust that the work is being done.
peas, green gram, What seems simple at the desk is so dif-
potatoes, rice, sor- ficult on the ground. Building and sustain-
ghum, soybean and ing trust can only be done when working
sunflowers. on the ground.”
While the Kwale – Mark Andrews
project has been
Karen James

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