Guiding mining in Namibia

Augetto Graig

WINDHOEK

Erasmus Shivolo, the mining commissioner of Namibia, has been at the heart of the transformation of mining in Namibia for well over a decade.

“Mining is my area of jurisdiction,” he said.

In 2006, Shivolo became the director of mines, before restructuring in 2007 changed the leadership of the directorate of mines, which has since been headed by a mining commissioner, and Shivolo was confirmed in that position.

When he said “this country stands tall in the mining sector”, he spoke from knowledge and personal experience. About the ministry, he said simply: “We have grown”.

Before independence

“Prior to independence, there was no ministry for mining, only a department responsible for mining issues under economic affairs. The industry was regulated under the Mines, Works and Minerals Ordinance 20 of 1968, and in essence, regulations were a copy and paste job from South Africa,” he recalled. That all changed under the able leadership of independent Namibia’s first minister of mines and energy, Dr Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo. It was under his stewardship that the country adopted the Mineral (Prospecting and Mining) Act 33 of 1992, which has governed the important industry ever since.

“Ya Toivo was a man of the people and he did not like disjointed structures” where colleagues sit in scattered offices and hardly interact with each other, as was the case then, “so he motivated to the house that the ministry be placed under one roof”.

“The structure at the time had the Geological Survey of Namibia seperate from the offices of the directorate of mines and energy, its administration and finance departments each occupying offices in town,” Shivolo said.

“In 1996, Ya Toivo succeeded, and this building was inaugerated in 1999,” he relates from his office on the seventh floor of the ministerial head offices overlooking the expanding Geological Survey of Namibia and the Eros Airport in the heart of the capital, across the street from the iconic Safari Hotel, and down the road from Namcor, the national petroleum corporation established in 1991.

Structure and policy

“Over the years, there has been a need to create structures, such as the department of diamond affairs, the important energy funds; like the national energy fund and the solar revolving fund, which pay for things like rural electrification, the new oil storage facility and contributed to Namcor,” the commissioner elaborated. “We have established offices in the regions, particularly Lüderitz, Swakopmund and Oranjemund as part of decentralisation and to bring service and monitoring to the areas where most activities are.”

“Our vision and mission as a government institution is to provide access to geological and energy resouces information for sustainable economic growth and the developement of the country,” he said.

“How do you get there? With policies and legislation to regulate the industry effectively, and to generate knowledge and information for the public and for investors. Policies allow us to provide services to stimulate investment, and they are in place for every sector. Unfortunatly, the way things evolved, in several areas instead of policies first and then legislation, we went straight into legislation. The act came first, policies later,” he added.

According to Shivolo, policies are meant to be long-term and to deliver products, for example, geological surveys.

“The situation is that some of the act is not talking to the policy, although over the years, we have been trying to review the act. There are strenuous excercises. We have been trying to review the act for 20 years.”

“The Mineral Act is very nice, but it can be difficult to read,” he said, because the main provisions and the regulations are interwoven in the body of the law.

“In review, we are trying to seperate them to allow the ministry to make regulations,” Shivolo said, explaining that the act should live long with the ministry simply changing regulations from time to time. “As it is now, the ministry has to go to parliament to change anything.”

This often imovable and intractable overarching architecture has worked for Namibia in some instances, while in others, it has been a challenge, he said. “Mining is not a easy industry,” Shivolo said, but he also named significant milestones in the efforts to get greater state representation in the lucretive sector to include the government’s formalised business relationship with diamond giant De Beers, the establishment of Namcor, Namdia for improved Namibian diamond prices, and Epangelo as a vehicle for direct state mining equity ownership.

Getting into mining

“If you do not have money, you can’t get into the industry,” Shivolo summed up the fundemental issue with the industry.

“It is better to allow the private sector to absorb the risk, through the technology and technical skills they can buy. We focus our resources on different things. State-funded exploration can work where deposits are auctioned to the highest bidder, as in Angola. That was our intention with Epangelo, but the coffers dried up and they have been frustrated.

“In general, funding is an area of concern to realise our mission to our vision.”

He noted that the ministry’s structures makes provision for 480 employees, but only 273 of those positions are filled, roughly 56%.

“There was a time we had the money, but could not get the bodies,” he recalled. Now the tables have turned. “There are many competent persons in Namibia who can do the work.”

When it had money, the ministry invested in infrastructure, and today boasts not only with the head office complex in the capital, but also with scattered accomodation facilities and offices as far afield as Oranjemund.

“We have a state-of-the-art building in Swakopmund, eco-friendly and powered by wind and solar panels. It has received international recognition. We also have the office in Tsumeb with its seismological station built in the 90s, which, with smaller satelites in Windhoek, Kamandjab and the south, is able to monitor earth movements, even explosions, pinpointing magnitude and depth anywhere in the world,” he said.

“We have a good fleet,” he further said, elaborating that 85% of almost 100 vehilces are in good order, and after an audit this year, some have been sent to the government garage to be sold on auction.

Shivolo is very proud of the investments made into information technology to improve access to the resources of the geological survey, and to computerise filing and related information management within the ministry and the industry as a whole.

“Our system has evolved from manual entries and stacks of papers. In 1996, we computerised with a system from Germany, but there were limitations and not everything was captured. Later, we changed to the flexi-cadastre and now we have completely rolled out our landfolio,” he said.

The technology has also helped the geological survey to evolve, providing improved service to the public.

“You pay to access the information, but we also produce many publications on mineral resources, most recently on dimension stone in the whole country. This catalogue details where what kinds of granite is found and what it can be used for. It is a very good thing as the survey is part of our vision and mission because it is the only way to discover resources. It is the mother of mines,” he said.

Automation has also improved the ministry’s ability to deal with the magnitude of interest in the mineral sector. “See how crowded the country is,” Shivolo said, pointing at the latest map of issued mining and explorations licences. One area of concern he highlights is speculation.

“There are a lot of spectulative applications. People are looking for opportunities, which is why we issue for three years and if you have not done anything, your licence is not renewed,” he explained.

Changing landscape

According to the commissioner, the Namibian mining landscape has changed from before independence when black Namibians and people of colour hardly participated in the ownership and development of the industry.

“Now they are there, particularly in small-scale mining. People have penetrated the mineral resources industry and most exclusive prospecting licenses are now held by previously disadvantaged people. “How do you get local people to participate without money and resources? We give licences. In the 2000s, there was a lot of speculation and also money laundering through exploration joint ventures. Financial intelligence legislation has closed many of those holes but the challenge to us is still that expectations are not met,” he said.

Close to 100 mining licences have currently been issued in Namibia, while exclusive prospecting licences are most popular with over 800 issued, and smaller mining claims - reserved for Namibians and limited to three by six hectare and only up to 10 each - also number close to 800, he said.

Covid impact

The recent outbreak of Covid-19 in Namibia brought with it a national state of emergency and periods of regional and national lockdown. This challenge saw the mining ministry take action.

“Mines were not considered criticl services at the start of the lockdown. Many things can go wrong and the costs of restarting mine plants are often unmanageable. We engaged the industry immediately and were soon able to allow mininal operations, subject to motivation and strict health measures put in place. “We sat for hours interogating the various submissions from the mines, and afterwards called in the ministry of health, and looked at the submissions again,” he said.

Recommendations were submitted to the minister for approval and followed by site visits to ensure what was on paper was put into practice.

“It worked, and after a while, there were no cases at our mines. We asked them to increase the measures and allowed them to get back to full production, which continues up until now,” he said.

“We are trying to live with it. People have realised that this is an international and a national tragedy. The challenge remains.”

Shivolo is nevertheless convinced that Namibian mining will rise to the challenge and continue as it has throughout recent international economic instability.

“We still believe that there is a future for mining in Namibia,” he said. “There are a few projects that are ready, like Etango and others. If prices of uranium improve, there is the likelihood that Langer Heinrich will be back on streak next year. Orano might sell or get back, Husab is not going to stop. Rössing has years left, the Chinese are looking at seven to 10 years, plus there are deposits that have not been mined.

“Namdeb is stressed but they are trying to reengineer and try to apply different thinking. Some people are trying to go back in Matchless and Otjihase. Some want to extend the life of Tschudi and if commodity prices are right, people will get in there. Afritin has a 15- to 20-year licence.

“Mines don’t die until something goes wrong. The old mine closed because the price dropped. The deposit was always there, it’s just the markets that have to be right,” he said.

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