Kunene Has the Minerals. Is the System Ready?
The recent visit by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources to the Kunene region comes at an important time. Kunene is increasingly described as Namibia’s next mining frontier. Investors are looking north-west, communities are taking greater interest in mining, and competition for mineral areas is growing. However, is the region ready for this level […] The post Kunene Has the Minerals. Is the System Ready? appeared first on The Namibian .
The recent visit by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources to the Kunene region comes at an important time.
Kunene is increasingly described as Namibia’s next mining frontier. Investors are looking north-west, communities are taking greater interest in mining, and competition for mineral areas is growing.
However, is the region ready for this level of mineral development?
As of 24 June, Kunene reportedly had 2 438 mineral rights and applications, comprising 1 827 mining claims and 611 exclusive prospecting licences (EPLs).
Of the mining claims, 486 were granted, and 1 341 applications remained. While these figures show significant mineral interest, they only reflect what has entered the system.
They do not capture the barriers applicants may face before reaching that stage.
Consider mining claims. An applicant must first physically peg the claim area (i.e. mark its boundaries on the ground) before applying for registration.
Where the pegged area overlaps with a pending EPL application, the applicant is required to obtain consent from the EPL applicant before the ministry records the claim coordinates and accepts the application for consideration.
Section 16(2)(e) of the Minerals Act appears to inform this practice.
CORE ISSUES
This raises an important question about how section 16(2)(e) interacts with the mining claim process under sections 33 to 35.
Section 33 gives the mining commissioner responsibility for considering and either granting or refusing an application for registration of a mining claim, subject to the act.
The question, then, is whether a pending EPL applicant should, by granting or withholding consent, determine whether a mining claim application reaches the commissioner for consideration at all.
The difficulty increases where several pending EPL applications overlap the same area.
A mining claim applicant may then need consent from multiple EPL applicants before the application can enter the system.
This can be impractical, as a single refusal may prevent the application and its pegged coordinates from being formally recorded and considered. This does not mean mining claims should take priority over EPL applications.
EPL applicants may have invested time and money in identifying exploration opportunities, and those interests deserve protection.
The question is how to protect them while still allowing mining claim applications to enter the statutory process for consideration and determination by the mining commissioner under sections 33 to 35 of the Minerals Act.
The 1 341 pending claims may therefore not tell the full story, as they don’t capture prospective claims that may never enter the system because EPL consent was not obtained.
Reconstructing that number may be difficult, but government should consider whether the current practice creates an unintended barrier to formal entry.
COMMUNAL LAND
On communal land, another layer enters the picture. Regulation 30 of the Communal Land Reform Act requires a prospective mineral applicant to notify the relevant chief or traditional authority and communal land board and obtain their recommendations.
Although the regulation speaks of a “recommendation”, in practice it is commonly referred to as a “consent letter”.
This can create a stand-off.
An EPL applicant may withhold consent from a local mining claim applicant, but later seek a recommendation from the same community’s traditional authority for its own EPL application.
The community may then be reluctant to support an applicant who previously withheld consent from one of its members. Clear criteria should therefore guide when consent or a recommendation may be given or withheld.
Where the parties still cannot agree, there should be a clear process to hear both sides and resolve the competing interests.
This would encourage early resolution and prevent disagreements, leaving applications indefinitely stalled.
THE VALUE CHAIN
Early engagement also matters where mineral applications affect environmentally sensitive areas.
Kunene’s conservancies understand local land uses, conservation areas and sensitive sites.
The mining and environment ministries should draw on this knowledge early to identify conflicts and determine where mining and conservation can coexist and where protection should take priority.
The committee’s visit also provides an opportunity to rethink how we view mining claims.
Often grouped under ‘small-scale mining’, individual operations can hide their combined economic value, particularly where minerals are sourced informally from multiple claims across the region.
Small quantities of copper, gold, gemstones or blue sodalite may seem insignificant alone but collectively can amount to substantial volumes and value leaving Kunene and ultimately the country.
A tonne of valuable copper remains a tonne even when assembled from smaller quantities produced by different miners.
The government should therefore track the wider mineral v
