Mining experiences unprecedented growth

THE Namibian mining industry last year had one of its best years ever, with a record amount of diamonds and uranium produced while mining’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product grew to 12,4 per cent, the Chamber of Mines said in its annual report released last week.

High international commodity prices saw five new mining licenses granted last year, with another eight pending, two of which – for uranium – have subsequently also been approved. The best performer in terms of foreign revenue generated remained Namibia’s relatively small but high-value diamond production, of which Namdeb and De Beers Marine (Namibia) produced 2 112 235 carats.New uranium producer Langer Heinrich, owned by Paladin Resources of Australia, last year exported 348 tonnes of uranium oxide, adding to RTZ’s 30-year-old Ršssing Uranium’s output of 3 046 tonnes for 2007 according to the report.Skorpion Zinc, an Anglo-American-owned mine that produces a special, high-quality product by means of a unique bio-chemical leaching process, last year exported 150 080 tonnes, the report said.At the same time, exploration has been proceeding at unprecedented levels, with a total of 194 new Exclusive Prospecting licenses issued in 2007, the chamber’s Veston Malango said.Tax revenue from mining after having been in a general decline since the middle 1990s, has increased sharply from N$604,7 million (about US$77million) to N$1 192,6 million (about US$152,9 million) for 2007, the chamber reported.This has also led to an increase in the number of people employed in the mining sector to 7 901 people, but was still far off from 1990s when just Roessing and De Beers alone employed 9 080 people, local analysts IJG Securities noted.The period also marked a shift from simply exporting raw materials to local value addition, which saw mining’s contribution to the GDP increase to an all-time high of 12,4 per cent, the report noted.This was most visible in the diamond sector, where mining output fell by 23,4 per cent but cutting and polishing rose by 69,7 per cent over the period under review.”The last two years have seen the prices of minerals produced by Namibian operations reach historically unprecedented levels and this has had a fundamental effect in both production and exploration in the country” chairman of the chamber Otto Shikongo wrote.The best performer in terms of foreign revenue generated remained Namibia’s relatively small but high-value diamond production, of which Namdeb and De Beers Marine (Namibia) produced 2 112 235 carats.New uranium producer Langer Heinrich, owned by Paladin Resources of Australia, last year exported 348 tonnes of uranium oxide, adding to RTZ’s 30-year-old Ršssing Uranium’s output of 3 046 tonnes for 2007 according to the report.Skorpion Zinc, an Anglo-American-owned mine that produces a special, high-quality product by means of a unique bio-chemical leaching process, last year exported 150 080 tonnes, the report said.At the same time, exploration has been proceeding at unprecedented levels, with a total of 194 new Exclusive Prospecting licenses issued in 2007, the chamber’s Veston Malango said.Tax revenue from mining after having been in a general decline since the middle 1990s, has increased sharply from N$604,7 million (about US$77million) to N$1 192,6 million (about US$152,9 million) for 2007, the chamber reported.This has also led to an increase in the number of people employed in the mining sector to 7 901 people, but was still far off from 1990s when just Roessing and De Beers alone employed 9 080 people, local analysts IJG Securities noted.The period also marked a shift from simply exporting raw materials to local value addition, which saw mining’s contribution to the GDP increase to an all-time high of 12,4 per cent, the report noted.This was most visible in the diamond sector, where mining output fell by 23,4 per cent but cutting and polishing rose by 69,7 per cent over the period under review.”The last two years have seen the prices of minerals produced by Namibian operations reach historically unprecedented levels and this has had a fundamental effect in both production and exploration in the country” chairman of the chamber Otto Shikongo wrote.