Namibia reaping the benefits of mining investments – Malango

The Mining Conference held in conjunction with the Expo 2017, will take place on 26 and 27 April at the showgrounds in Windhoek. This year the event will run under the theme: ‘Reaping the benefits of mining Investment in Namibia’.

The event was launched earlier this week by CEO of the Chamber of Mines, Veston Malango and this year crucial topics such as water, security concerns, uranium market dynamics, mining contribution to national development will be covered.

At the launch Malango said that the Namibia is expecting about 90 exhibitors including all the household names such as Rio Tinto, B2Gold and Namdeb and other industry suppliers will be present to showcase their services and businesses.

According to him, the mining industry remains one of the largest contributors to GDP, constituting 12.5% in 2015, and contributes 50% to Namibia’s foreign exchange earnings.

He said that the benefits of a modern and well run mining sector to the Namibian economy are plenty and remain important drivers for economic growth.

“The Namibian mining industry provides jobs to about 9000 permanent employees of which 95% are Namibians and only 5% are expatriates,” he added.

Furthermore, he said that at the recent Mining Indaba held in Cape Town, Namibia was singled out as a success story in the implementation of the African Mining Vision with shared value and benefits.

“Namibia is the only African country where the industry has expanded with 3 new mines on the back of a commodity downturn in recent years,”he said, adding that Namibia is ready to exploit a growth in commodity demand and is reaping the benefits of mining investments.