Katchen holds the future of Selibe Phikwe
His exploration findings will determine among others, how the new Selibe mine design will shape up and how many will be employed, as well as the number of years the mine is likely to run.
One would mistake him for a farmer on first impressions. Not only does his stocky body suggest so, but his attire of a short-sleeved khaki shirt and a pair of trousers, as well as a cowboy hat and boots easily qualifies him as such.
The only thing that distinguishes him from an ordinary farmer is his dirty reflector vest which appears to have seen a number of Christmases. The pockets of his reflector vest are loaded with magnetic pens.
At close range, the cowboy hat shows that it is not just a sun protector hat, but also an engineer’s hat or Watson’s hat shop - a hard hat originally made to identify mining engineers in Canada back in the 1880s.
The man in question does not only have a well-built body, which could also qualify him as a boxer but, he is extraordinarily hyperactive. This is none other than Gerry Katchen, Exploration Manager of Premium Nickel Resource Botswana (PNRB), a subsidiary of a Canadian Company; the successful bidder who invested billions of Pula to buy some of the BCL mine assets, Shafts 2 and 4 both in Selebi and Selibe north is an investor that brings a ray of hope.
The PNRB mine is still under exploration, while all employees are important, it would be fair to say currently everything revolves around the exploration team led by Katchen.
The man bubbles with confidence. But, who can blame him; he has over 23 years of experience in mineral exploration and mining in the North America and has also operated in countries such as Greenland, Finland, Tanzania, and now Botswana.
Katchen obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree from Brandon University in 1998, and his career primarily comprised of global exploration search for Nickel, Copper, and Platinum Group Metals hosted within intrusive Mafic/Ultramafic sulphide systems.
His past experience with North American Palladium, Placer Dome, Continental Nickel, and North American Nickel has provided a solid background in the systematic approach and application of shallow and deep exploration technologies and methods.
His career highlights include the discovery of the Ntaka Hill Nickel-Copper deposit in Tanzania for Continental Nickel and the PQDeeps discovery for Placer Dome.
Katchen is working hand in hand with yet another expert, Chief Geophysicist, Sharon Taylor. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Sciences from Mount Allison University, as well as Masters's Degree in Science from Queen’s University.
Taylor has over 35 years of experience in mineral exploration, including 13 years with Falconbridge, Noranda, and Xstrata. She has experience in both volcano genie massive sulphide and nickel exploration in major mining camps including Kidd Creek, Bathurst, Raglan, Sudbury, and Kabana.
Her international exploration experience includes nickel projects in Tanzania and Greenland. Her area of expertise is the application and interpretation of EM data and integrating results from the airborne ground and down whole EM methods.
Their findings will influence the actual mine design as they are so far supervising the drilling of the six holes in order for PNRB to look at the quality data collection, be it steel data, structural data and all of that data will help to predict where the ore is.
Botswana Guardian has it in good authority that it takes up to six weeks working around the clock at a cost of nearly US$250 000, about a P3million per hole.