WINDHOEK: Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo has revealed that the number of applications for exploration licenses has heightened, with over 600 new applications recorded by December 2023 and 400 new applications received since January this year.

Alweendo said this while speaking during the opening of the 2024 Mining Expo and Conference on Wednesday.

‘Given this high volume of applications, it is no surprise that it is taking a while for us to finalise the evaluation of all the applications in a timely manner. It is not uncommon for an application to take more than a year before it is evaluated. We have also discovered that most of the applicants that have been awarded exploration licenses do turn out not to have the requisite capabilities to carry out exploration activities as per their agreed exploration work programmes,’ Alweendo said.

According to Alweendo, the ministry’s evaluation process is not rigorous enough to only accept applications that have clearly demonstrated the capability to carry
out exploration.

‘We have recently therefore taken a decision to only award exploration licenses to applicants that have met the minimum exploration work program, as determined by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and have demonstrated the necessary financial and technical capabilities to execute their exploration work programmes,’ he added.

This, he stressed, is necessary to avoid delaying the discoveries of minerals.

The minister also revealed that currently, the ministry has 162 valid mining licenses, of which only 68 are actively mining. The rest, he noted, are on care and maintenance and some never started any mining activities since the issuing of licenses.

‘Just like with exploration licenses, this trend is equally concerning, and we have become more stringent when considering mining license applications. We have introduced a requirement where henceforth, terms and conditions of all new mining licenses shall be captured in a mining agreement that shall be negotiated between the ministry and the hol
der of the license,’ Alweendo maintained.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency