President open to coal, Aranos deposits in spotlight

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah says Namibia would use coal if it found commercially viable deposits, putting fresh attention on a resource the country already – about 350 million tonnes of coal lying underground around Aranos.Speaking in New York this week, Nandi-Ndaitwah said Namibia would not allow the transition towards cleaner energy to prevent it from exploiting a mix of energy resources needed for industrialisation.She said if Namibia discovers "coal today", it would make use of it, arguing that green hydrogen and other energy sources should complement rather than exclude each other.Geological studies show that Namibia has known about its coal resources for decades, with substantial deposits identified in the Aranos Basin and coal-bearing formations also occurring in the Waterberg, Huab and Owambo basins.Aranos is by far the country's best investigated and largest known coal deposit.Namibia's 2022 national integrated resource plan puts the Aranos Basin resource at about 350 million tonnes of in-situ, high-quality metallurgical coal at depths of up to 300 metres.Technical literature describes it as high-quality metallurgical coal, with workable seams averaging around two metres and relatively low sulphur.An older detailed geological assessment estimated about 371.9 million tonnes, reinforcing the broad scale of the known occurrence.These figures are historical resource estimates and should not be confused with a modern compliant reserve demonstrating that all of the coal can be economically extracted.Coal found decades agoCoal around Aranos has been known for decades, and the basin has undergone extensive drilling and sampling during earlier exploration programmes.Academic work on southern Africa's Permian coal deposits identifies Aranos as Namibia's most extensively drilled and sampled coal occurrence.The coal occurs in Karoo-age sedimentary rocks, part of the broader geological system that hosts major coal deposits elsewhere in southern Africa.Historical exploration identified the most significant Aranos resources in the north-eastern and central parts of the basin towards Botswana, but despite the resource size, commercial mining has never followed.The difficulty has therefore not been finding coal but establishing whether it can be mined economically.Much of the Aranos resource lies at depths of about 200 to 300 metres, while groundwater associated with the coal seams has been identified as a major technical obstacle to development.Infrastructure requirements and historically limited domestic demand have added to the challenge.The Atlas of Namibia consequently states that coal deposits such as those near Aranos are not commercially viable with current technologies.Nandi-Ndaitwah's remarks do not change those economics or mean that government has decided to develop a coal mine.They do, however, make government's policy position clearer by indicating that coal would not automatically be excluded from Namibia's energy mix if a commercially viable development emerged.Aranos exploration returnsThe coal field has also attracted renewed private-sector interest, with Dealmaker Investments, wholly owned by Damara Natural Resources, saying last year it was undertaking a work programme to confirm the historical Aranos resource and upgrade it so it could be brought to account.A mining and energy magazine quoted Dealmaker Investments chief executive David Mooney last year saying the Aranos historical resource is about 370 million tonnes, with an average seam thickness of 2.21 metres and an average calorific value of 25 MJ/kg at a 1.5-metre cut-off.Dealmaker has also applied for EPL9212, covering approximately 19 663 hectares about 60 km south-east of Aranos.Environmental documentation shows the exploration application covers several mineral categories, including non-nuclear fuel minerals.The renewed exploration interest means Nandi-Ndaitwah's remarks come as the Aranos coalfield's potential is being examined again, although no commercial mine development has been announced.Coal extends beyond AranosGeological Survey information also identifies coal potential in the Owambo, Huab and Waterberg basins, although these occurrences are much less extensively investigated and do not have a similarly well-established quantified resource that can be directly compared with the approximately 350 million tonnes identified at Aranos.Historical geological research has identified several Karoo-age coal-bearing areas across Namibia, but none has developed into commercial coal production.That history gives greater significance to Nandi-Ndaitwah's comments because she placed coal within a broader argument that Namibia will need multiple energy sources to support industrialisation, rather than choosing one technology at the expense of another.“Neither green hydrogen nor other sources of energy are a priority, but all must work together in parallel,” she said.The president reiterated that position during discussions in New York, saying Namibia favours an energy mix in which different sources complement one another.“As a country, we believe in the energy mix. For us, it is not a question of choice. We want a mix for them to complement each other,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.

President open to coal, Aranos deposits in spotlight

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-24

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President open to coal, Aranos deposits in spotlight

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-24

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