Namibia's battery metal ambitions rest on infrastructure, miners say
25/10/2023 13:42
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Namibia has banned exports of unprocessed lithium, rare
earths
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First African country to sign critical minerals deal with
EU
By Nelson Banya Nyasha Nyaungwa
WINDHOEK/HARARE, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Namibia's ambitions
to become a manufacturing hub for battery metals key to the
global transition to clean energy will require huge investments
in infrastructure to support processing facilities, mining
executives said on Wednesday.
The southern African country has significant deposits of
lithium, vital for renewable energy storage, as well as rare
earth minerals needed for permanent magnets in electric vehicles
and wind turbines.
Last year Namibia became the first African country to sign a
deal with the European Union EU to supply the bloc with green
hydrogen and minerals needed for clean energy technologies.
Namibia this year banned the export of unprocessed lithium
and rare earth minerals as it seeks to profit from growing
global demand for metals used in renewable energy.
Mining executives attending an EU-Namibia conference on
critical minerals lauded the African country for its
investor-friendly policies and renewable energy resources, but
said significant investment was needed before it could produce
battery-ready metals.
Andrada Mining ATM.L CEO Anthony Viljoen, whose company
recently commissioned a lithium pilot plant at its Uis mine in
western Namibia, said the country could use its collaboration
with the EU to develop the large-scale infrastructure projects
needed to support local processing of battery metals.
"Beneficiation gets bandied about quite freely without
understanding the complexities. There needs to be a huge
investment, concurrent with the development of these facilities,
in infrastructure, specifically, water, power and logistics.
Those big projects don’t happen overnight," Viljoen said.
Lepidico LPD.AX managing director Joe Walsh said his
company planned to produce lithium concentrate at its Karibib
operations, but would process battery-grade lithium at its
hydrometallurgical plant to be built in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi offers immediate logistical efficiencies, an
established industrial park with available shared infrastructure
and "straightforward" permitting, Walsh said.
"These are very good examples of efficient, effective
infrastructure that would be a huge benefit if it was to be
installed, say, at Walvis Bay in Namibia. That would be a
massive enabler for us to consider a Phase 2 plant within
Namibia," he said.
Analysts say sparsely populated Namibia, one of the largest
and driest countries in sub Saharan Africa, has huge potential
for solar and wind energy projects, key factors in the
production of battery minerals.
(Reporting by Nyasha Nyaungwa in Windhoek and Nelson Banya in
Harare
Editing by Mark Potter)
((Nelson.Banya@thomsonreuters.com;))