Schlettwein urges local mining value addition

Agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein says Namibia should compel mining companies to do more beneficiation to ensure minerals exported earn more revenue.

He made the comment at the US-Africa Business Summit currently underway in Gaborone, Botswana.

“I think we should move away from the concept that miners are not good value-adders. In fact, we must force them to become value-adders,” Schlettwein said.

The suggestion was, however, shot down by First Rand Namibia CEO Conrad Dempsey, who said Namibia did not lend itself to beneficiation in certain industries.

“If you take our copper industry or our gold industry, our total production is just too small to justify the cost of putting up a refinery and get into end-state refined gold,” he said.

Namibia could, however, reimport gold and copper already refined and seek means towards value addition, he added.

The Chamber of Mines of Namibia has in the past supported governmental moves to ask for local value addition in the mining sector.

Cabinet in June resolved to prohibit the exportation of Namibia’s critical minerals in raw form in a bid to create more local jobs and more local value. It, however, later approved that smaller quantities of these minerals may be exported at the ministry’s discretion.