Chamber of Mines foresees promising yet challenging era for local mining
The Chief Executive of the Chamber of Mines, Veston Malango, stated in the recent issue of its E-Newsletter that it is still an exciting time for the mining sector.
He announced the upcoming Chamber of Mines 2024 Mining Expo & Conference, scheduled for 7 and 8 August. Malango also mentioned that exhibitor registration has already begun for businesses, operations, and projects showcased.
To date, Malango said that the are already 107 confirmed companies that are exhibiting and occupying a total space of 188 booths.
“Given the very early interest, we expect that we will once again book out the entire Windhoek Show-grounds for this event and for it to be even bigger than the 2023 Mining Expo & Conference.”
It remains an exciting time for the mining sector, however, there is growing weary at the pace of progress to advance key policy and regulatory matters such as the Minerals Bill, Namibia Investment Promotion and Facilitation Bill, and to hold technical discussions on proposals to introduce a Government free carry in mining companies, he said.
According to Malango, Namibia’s performance on the Fraser Institute Survey shows that the uncertainty around these policy items is hampering the perceived attractiveness of Namibia’s investment climate for mining.
The 2023 Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies reported that Namibia’s position on the
overall Investment Attractiveness Index (IAI) deteriorated by 3 points from 59 in 2022 to 56 in
2023. On this index, Namibia was ranked 42 out of 86 jurisdictions surveyed, compared to 38 out
of 62 jurisdictions in 2022.
In the African context, Namibia ranked 4th out of 22 African jurisdictions surveyed on overall investment attractiveness, compared to 6th out of 16 jurisdictions surveyed in 2022.
“While we can be proud that Namibia is still one of Africa’s more favourable destinations, ranking 4th, it is concerning to note that our score has deteriorated by three points on the absolute score and also on our global rankings. This shows that Namibia can do better with regards to mining policy and regulatory matters,” said the Chamber of Mines President, Zebra Kasete.
