President Hage Geingob has reiterated that Namibia will no longer export raw metals.
“Namibia’s economy is intricately linked to the extraction and processing of minerals for export, contributing significantly to our GDP and foreign exchange earnings. However, we will
no longer export raw minerals,” he told the EU-Namibia Business Forum in Brussels on Tuesday.
He said the Namibian Government is committed to a shared partnership, which is transparent, in the development of the country’s critical metals sector.
“Namibia is committed to a partnership with business anchored in the rule of law and our practice of effective governance, buttressed by robust processes, systems and institutions,”
Geingob said.
The Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo, speaking at the Brussels event, also justified the country’s ban on unprocessed lithium and critical minerals exports to encourage the development of domestic processing.
“As mentioned by the President, for this to become a win-win partnership, we are building an economy. Therefore, the critical raw materials that we have must be value-added in-country.
That is something that we must stress,” he said.
This comes after the Namibian government banned the export of unprocessed critical metals in June, joining Zimbabwe in demanding that all locally mined lithium be processed locally.
According to Simonis Storm projections, lithium is expected to contribute N$1.7 billion to N$4.6 billion in revenue to the government. In a Lithium Industry in Namibia report, Simonis notes that the local lithium sector’s revenue to the government would be the largest compared to other commodity mining operations in Namibia.
In November last year, Namibia signed a deal with the European Union, ensuring the trade bloc’s access to the country’s rare earth metals to power the global transition to green energy. In April, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Germany’s willingness to help Namibia set up local lithium processing infrastructure.
