The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Noah Salakae has revealed that government is keen on investing in the Xaudum Iron Project located in the North West region.
Salakae said this during the tour of the Iron Ore Storage Facility in Maun, accompanied by Namibia’s minister of Works and Transport, Veikko Nekundi. The purpose of the visit was for the two countries to establish possibilities of working together on the project.
Government’s support on the project comes after Gcwihaba Resources (Pty) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tsodilo Resources initiated litigation proceedings in October 2022 against Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security over the renewal of its prospecting licenses along the XIF located in the buffer zone of the Okavango Delta.
In December 2023, Maun High Court ordered the Minister of Minerals and Energy to renew Gcwihaba Resources’ one prospecting licence and to align the effective dates of contiguous licences with that of the renewed licence within 14 days.
The project is ~35km from the town of Divundu in Namibia, through which the Trans Caprivi Railway (TCR) line linking Zambia and Namibia, is planned to pass which will provide access to Walvis Bay. It is also located within ~70 km of the proposed Angolan, Mucusso line to the Namibe Port.
According to Salakae, government intends to leverage on the private sector through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) to finance the project. He added that government is currently facing financial constraints but remains clear on how they intend to deliver the iron ore project through collaboration with the private sector.
Salakae indicated that it is very important that they build the railway line to ensure that the iron ore project becomes a success as they intend to export the commodity through Walvis Bay Port in Namibia.
He noted that the project has the potential to create employment opportunities, facilitate training and skills transfer.
In an interview Gcwihaba Resources (Pty) Limited Administrator, Moagi Ntukununu said, “We had litigations with the previous government, went through high courts and all that and now we are back on track, the new government is supporting us, we believe the President is even talking about the project wherever he goes, the government is promising to help us start up,” he said.
Ntukununu said they are left with three to four studies to start the mining process, indicating that they currently conducting the Preliminary Study.
For his part, Namibia’s Minister of Works and Transport Nekundi also stressed the importance of the project, noting that it will enable Namibia and Botswana to extensively collaborate on the issues of logistics. Nekundi also added that currently they need to expedite the process to develop the railway line, exploration stage to the actual mining and eventually logistics processes.
“The Iron Ore will be transported to the international market through Walvis Bay Port, it is of paramount importance that we are at an advanced stage to develop our Trans Zambezi Railway Line to enable exportation,” he said.
