Namibia aims to pass new mining empowerment laws by April 2017-minister

By Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Namibia wants new laws passed
within a year compelling mining firms to have a minimum 20
percent stake reserved for the black majority, before issuing or
renewing prospecting and mining licences as part of an
empowerment drive to fight poverty, the mines minister said on
Thursday.
The southern African country, where the Chinese are building
a new N$20 billion uranium mine at Husab, has been hit by a
global commodities slump as revenue earned from diamond and
uranium exports slipped in a sector that contributed 13 percent
to gross domestic product in 2014.
"Within the next legislative calendar, which ends April next
year, it should become law," Obeth Kandjoze, Minister of Mines
and Energy, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African mining
conference in Cape Town.
"The principles are what remain non-negotiable. Namibians of
all walks of life, of all sexes, must become participants in the
economy and mining is no different," Kandjoze said, adding that
consultations with the industry would take place before final
quotas were agreed.
He said the industry, which mines uranium, copper, zinc and
gold by companies including Areva AREVA.PA , Vedanta VED.L
and B2Gold BTO.TO , had responded positively to the new draft
laws, with the Namibian Chamber of Mines also suggesting a
mining charter in a parallel bid to open up the sector to a
previously disadvantaged majority.
"We continue to see shareholding revolve around a few and we
want to see that change. We want to see job creation in a far
more transparent, open procurement system that will accord
opportunities to all," said Kandjoze, who slammed the continued
dominance of "white, male ex-patriates" in management.
The draft empowerment bill, published for public comment
this month, also makes provision for at least 5 percent of a
mining company to be owned by Namibians.
It says if the proposed structure of the applicant does not
meet the government's objectives for broad-based empowerment,
the minister has the right to propose amendments so that the
application meets poverty eradication and empowerment aims.
"There has to be some teeth built into the legislation to
make companies comply," Kandjoze said.
The minister said after a fire at the processing plant of
the Husab uranium mine in December, mining was continuing and
Swakop Uranium was stockpiling material, but commissioning of
the plant had been delayed by six months as a result.
It was unclear when the plant would be fixed, he said.
Turning to the Kudu gas development, Kandjoze said the
government wanted to offload its 44 percent stake in the
stranded offshore gas field of more than 1 trillion cubic feet
of gas, which is seen as a priority project to help alleviate
electricity shortages in Namibia.
"Commercially, technically the project remains one that the
government supports fully, except for the fact that government's
44 percent share of the project is now unaffordable to us," he
said, adding that new partners were being sought in the market
on a fully private equity basis.