World's first - BetterWorld Energy Prepares African Mine Site Regeneration with Pongamia

For the first time, elite Pongamia pinnata will be planted in Sub-Saharan Africa to bring life to a post-mining landscape in Zambia. Copper tailings are produced after copper bearing rocks are crushed and leached with sulphuric acid. The copper concentrate is removed and the resulting sediments are pumped into a tailings storage facility. These are then reprocessed to remove any remaining copper, and the storage facility is left abandoned, ready for rehabilitation.

BetterWorld Energy has a unique strategy to revegetation that makes good environmental sense, but also good economic sense. Our approach creates a whole new post-mining economy, jobs that last beyond the revegetation activities, through the production of bioenergy, bio-pesticides, high value bio-pharmaceuticals and organic fertilisers and animal feeds from plus variety Pongamia pinnata..

For the first time, ladies from the local community are provided with the chance to envision a future of stable employment in a healthy environment. The new skills they have learnt, planting and caring for the new saplings, will be of considerable value as we seek to scale our ecosystem regeneration activities to a much larger area.