Mantra Tanzania (100% affiliate of Mantra Resources Pty Limited, which shares are managed by Uranium One Holding, which in turn is part of ROSATOM’s uranium mining division) and the Wild Life Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism of the United Republic of Tanzania signed a memorandum of understanding. The parties intend to closely cooperate in struggling the illegal elephant hunting in the south of the Selous Game Reserve near the uranium project Mkuju River.
The Mantra Tanzania’s initiative to combat poaching was launched in 2013. Since then, the company has paid for training and outfitting 20 huntsmen who now regularly patrol a territory of 20,000 square kilometers adjacent to the Mkuju River project. At the same time, airborne patrolling with drones is carried out. The drones are equipped with night-sight systems, GPS navigators and video transmitters. In future, it is also planned to start regular air patrols on a light airplane or helicopter. According to the recently signed memorandum, Mantra Tanzania and the Government of Tanzania will set up a parity committee, which will be charged with development, implementation and monitoring of all joint anti-poaching programs as well as with interaction with stakeholders, including governmental bodies of all tiers, local communities, hunting concessions and non-governmental organizations.
The parties also agreed that in 2014 Mantra Tanzania will invest US$ 800,000 in the poaching combating measures. In future, corresponding programs will be drafted and approved on an annual basis. “The signing of the memorandum of understanding is an important step in a large systemic work on combating poaching, which we carry out in cooperation with the Government of Tanzania in the Selous Game Reserve, which a UNESCO World Heritage site,” Vadim Zhivov, president of Uranium One Holding, noted. “We believe that in a joint effort we will be able to protect the unique wild life of this country and make the Mkuju River the standard of responsible approach to implementation of projects in the field of natural resources mining.” The Mkuju River project provides for building a uranium mining facility in the south of the United Republic of Tanzania.
