President of mines chamber calls for more exploration

The president of the Chamber of Mines of Namibia, Zebra Kasete, says there is a need for more exploration in the mining sector.

He says exploration activities involved N$882 million last year, which is a slight drop.

“We need to attract more exploration if we want to have a sustainable mining industry,” Kasete said during the Nedbank Oil and Gas discussion in Windhoek this week.

The mining sector currently employs 18 200 people.

He added that work needs to be done to boost Namibia’s attractiveness to international investors.

“Minerals are abundant in our ground,but we must acknowledge that investors have numerous options.

Our attractiveness, as measured by the Fraser Index, placed us at 56th last year. However, within Africa, we were ranked fourth, an improvement from sixth the previous year.

This shows progress, but also highlights that there are 55 other jurisdictions where investment flows more easily,” said Kasete.

He said the country’s mining industry is looking promising, with many projects on the horizon.

“We have two or three uranium mines, such as Deep Yellow, moving towards production.

There’s also Osino in the gold sector, which should be in full production within two to three years.

“Additionally, a copper mine near Karibib and a graphite project are on the horizon,” he said.

Collaboration between the mining and oil sectors is seen as essential, according to him.

“Both industries are part of the extractive sector, facing similar challenges but on different scales.

With society pressuring oil companies to decarbonise, they will need metals from the mining industry to achieve their goals,” Kasete said.

During the discussion, the head of oil and gas at Nedbank London, Christopher Coombs, said the industry has changed a lot over the past decade.

“Namibia started the decade at a very negative resource base and is now in talks with industries that are worth billions of pounds,” Coombs said.

He said TotalEnergies has committed 50% of its US$100 million global exploration budget to Namibia in a single year.

“Such a commitment signifies confidence, not just in future production, but in the near-term prospects. By the end of the decade, Namibia has the potential to become the top producer of oil in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.

Tjivingurura Mbuende, the corporate and investment banking executive at Nedbank Namibia, said Namibia could experience unprecedented gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the next five years.

However, ensuring that resources trickle down to the ordinary Namibian has always been a challenge, he said.

“It is about ensuring more and more people can share in the benefits,” Mbuende said.