Forging a metallurgical path in Namibia's mining industry

Simeon Haihambo was in August entrusted to serve as one of Langer Heinrich Uranium’s (LHU) metallurgical engineers - the brilliant minds behind technical knowledge to fulfil production, cost, safety and compliance objectives of processing plant activities.

He indicated that the objectives are achieved through the application of scientific principles and theories in designing and monitoring practical systems.

“Part of my job at LHU is to ensure key performance indicators (KPI) are within set limits. I achieve this by developing data collection systems, initiating corrective intervention systems and sustaining these systems’ effectiveness.”



Hard work and eagerness

Haihambo, known as ‘Pele’, is the child of Simeon and Julia Haihambo.

The 29-year-old metallurgist is an Oshakati native who attended primary school at Oshakati Junior and matriculated from Oshigambo High School in 2011. He pursued metallurgical engineering at the University of Namibia's (Unam) Jose Eduardo dos Santos campus a year later, graduating in 2015.

“Currently, I have submitted my thesis for my MBA in management strategy at Unam.”

A year after graduating, Haihambo made his debut in the corporate industry. However, given the country’s unemployment rate that was exponentially rising at the time, he started as a laboratory operator at B2Gold Namibia.

“After an impressive spell of nine months characterised by hard work and an eagerness to learn, I earned a promotion to a junior metallurgist position, the entry position for any metallurgical engineering graduate,” he said.

Fast-forward to December 2022, he transitioned to Northern Graphite, an upcoming graphite company. Here, he was employed as a plant metallurgist, consequently ending his six years in the gold-processing industry.

However, this too was short-lived when he joined LHU earlier this year, where he is part of the client technical team in charge of the restart project.

“Namibia’s mining industry is renowned for uranium processing," he said.



Venturing into mining

His passion for mining was spurred by a grade 10 field tour to the Rössing Uranium mine, where a metallurgist named Jorge Shimbuelengue inadvertently left a lasting impression on him.

“In describing the process of concentrating uranium from a rock into yellow cake, he established the practicality of science and how it relates to the subject we were taught in school.”

Haihambo was so fascinated and developed a keen interest in using science outside the classroom. It was through this experience that he was inspired to become a metallurgical engineer.

He draws inspiration from the various challenges that come his way as a metallurgist, viewing them as learning curves and opportunities to improve his knowledge and skills.

“Having emotional intelligence makes the job much easier. Through the evolution of practical science, there are always new and improved ways to achieve desired goals. This inherent nature of my job satisfies my curious personality, and, of course, the money is good as well. It allows me to achieve a lot in my life outside the work environment.”

Haihambo envisions a Namibia where professionals across all mining sectors become actively engaged in consultative and design roles.

This shift from operating processes designed elsewhere will propel the country towards producing refined minerals with high-value additions rather than concentrates.

“In 2018, I managed to develop a model to calculate the amount of steel ball to be added to a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill using multiple regression analysis techniques I learnt during my years at university. It sounds cliché, but education is indeed the key to success and independence. It affords you half a chance, and it’s enough for those who are willing," he said.