Modern Mining September 2015

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September 2015 MODERN MINING31
COUNTRY FOCUS –
NAMIBIA
ture
High Grade (SHG) zinc. As part of Vedanta’s
recently announced Gamsberg project (which
will see the Gamsberg zinc mine being devel-
oped in the Northern Cape), Skorpion’s refinery
will be converted (at a cost of about US$152
million) to allow it to refine zinc concentrates
from Gamsberg.
In respect of gold, Namibia was for long
regarded as a ‘one-trick pony’, its only gold
mine being Navachab, located near the town
of Karibib, which AngloGold Ashanti com-
missioned in 1989. The country now has a
second – and bigger – gold mine in the shape
of B2Gold’s Otjikoto mine north of Otiwarongo,
which poured its first gold in December last
year and has thus far – as we explain in an arti-
cle on page 32 – proven a big success.
Navachab, which produced 57 700 ounces
of gold in 2013 and 62 300 ounces in 2014,
was bought last year by QKR Corp, a mining
fund backed by Qatari interests and headed
by former JP Morgan executive Lloyd Pengilly
(well-known in South African mining circles).
Since the deal was concluded, QKR has released
little information on the mine but the Chamber
of Mines’ Annual Review does mention that a
major waste pushback on the western side of
the open pit started in 2014.
Another metal that Namibia produces (albeit
in small quantities so far) is manganese, with
Australian junior Shaw River Manganese pro-
ducing manganese ore from several pits at its
Otjozondu (Otjo) project, located 150 km north-
east of Windhoek in an historic manganese
field. In the June quarter of this year Shaw River
shipped just over 8 000 tonnes of product, the
final destination being China. The company has
been building up its processing capabilities at
Otjo and, with the recent commissioning of
a 100 t/h jig plant, now has all the plant and
equipment required for crushing, screening and
beneficiation of ore on site.
Finally, what of the future for Namibian
mining? With diamond mining unlikely to
grow strongly (Namdeb’s onshore resources
have only a limited life left) and with the
country having very little chance of ever
becoming a really major gold or copper pro-
ducer, probably the best prospect for growth
is uranium. The Fukushima incident was a
devastating blow to uranium miners – and
explorers – worldwide but there is every like-
lihood that the price of the commodity will
eventually recover. If it does, Namibia will be
a major beneficiary and could easily emerge as
the world’s second biggest U308 producer.
Certainly, the Namibian government seems
determined to grow not just uranium mining
but all sectors of the mining industry and has
ensured that mining investment in Namibia –
whether for exploration or new mines – is an
attractive proposition. Its efforts paid off ear-
lier this year when Namibia emerged as Africa’s
most attractive mining investment destination
in the annual Fraser Institute Survey of Mining
Companies, which – despite its title – essen-
tially ranks mining jurisdictions worldwide.
Combine this ranking with the country’s sta-
bility, its good prospectivity and its generally
excellent infrastructure and the inescapable
conclusion is that mining in Namibia has a very
bright future ahead of it. 
Exploration drilling by
Kombat Copper Inc, a
Canadian company which is
hoping to restart mining at
the Kombat copper mine in
northern Namibia, possibly
starting with an open-pit
operation (photo: Kombat
Copper).