Country in focus
B2Gold’s Otjikoto processing plant has been well designed and achieves recoveries of more than 98%.
mines; however, the scale of the mines’ requirements can be a risk
to business continuity from a surety of supply and timely delivery
of required quantities. “When Husab needs pumps, for example, we
often need more than one pump, while the size of the equipment is
unlike anything your everyday supplier in Namibia is used to. But,
it is part of our social improvement commitment to support local
businesses, and we try to assist them where we can,” says Kalili.
Another challenge is the lack of relevant skills, which is not always
available in Namibia. “As a result, we’ve brought in a number of
expatriates for some of the functions, but we try to keep these
numbers as low as possible. Currently, about 95% of our workforce
is local and only 5% are expatriates, mostly from South Africa,
Zambia, and China,” says Kalili.
Water is key
Access to water is another possible risk when operating in
Namibia. The country is water scarce, with the mines in the
southern and central regions being most vulnerable to water
supply risks. Water security for uranium mines in the coastal
region is a smaller risk, as they have guaranteed water supply
from Orano’s desalination plant.
At the moment, Orano Mining’s desalination plant is pumping 12
million cubic metres per year into the public utility NamWater’s supply
(see the article on page 34 of African Mining). The plant is capable of
producing about 20 million cubic metres of potable water per annum.
According to Kalili, water is critical. “If Trekkopje decides to
mine, we are stranded. The quantity of water that we require
only they can provide us with; we don’t have enough capacity
from local sources. So yes, it is a significant risk for us. We are,
however, working at mitigating that risk. NamWater has the
same problem,” says Kalili.
www.africanmining.co.za
Kalili says that uranium mining is water intensive and to source
enough water in a desert environment is problematic. “We use
about 0.6 cubic metres per tonne. This is all part of the risk that we
need to evaluate and assess,” he says.
Electricity supply
In some areas of Namibia, the electricity supplier, NamPower, is
not able to connect remote mines onto the national grid, which has
resulted in some mines generating their own electricity. B2Gold’s
Otjikoto gold mine, for example, uses HFO generators and recently
installed a large solar plant to add to its current power supply.
The cost of building transmission lines to remote areas are exorbitant
and most mining operations try to avoid these costs. During the
visit to Desert Lion Energy’s site, all the mobile plants were run
by generators, but Coetzee said that the company is in continual
discussions with NamPower to tap into the national grid in the future.
Once connected, though, the cost of using electricity is expensive. The
largest percentage of Namibia’s electricity is supplied (at great cost)
by neighbouring South Africa’s government utility Eskom, which,
in itself, has been under pressure to keep its coal-fired power stations
burning, and that exposes Namibia’s consumers to additional risk.
As we enter 2019, Namibia should really be close to the top of
any investment inventory. Despite the lure of massive, high-grade
deposits in other parts of Africa, which promises big rewards,
the risks in these countries might just be too great for the liking
of big funds and financiers. In comparison, Namibia’s geology is
fascinating, and although some ore bodies are large, the reality is
that they are more often than not low-grade deposits. However,
they are good enough to outweigh the risks the country presents.
Namibia is ‘Africa Light’, as the CEO of one of the operating
mines in Namibia once told me, and it deserves the attention of
more exploration companies. b
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