Katali lays into foreign miners

Namibia has mini crushers for sale in ukbecome an "Eldorado of speculators and other quick-fix, would-be mineral explorers and mining developers", Mines and Energy Minister Isak Katali said last night, adding that legislation will be changed "as soon as possible" to empower state-owned Epangelo Mining Company to share in the country's strategic mineral riches.

Although mining is one of the major contributors to the economy, its "contribution to government revenue is not commensurate with its share to the gross domestic product", Katali said. Mostly, the country has to be content with royalties, he said. "That means that Namibia benefits from its natural endowment mainly through rent-seeking. This situation is untenable," the Minister said. Katali called a press conference mainly to address the concerns of the Chamber of Mines of Namibia following the announcement in his budget speech recently that Cabinet has endorsed that uranium, gold, copper, coal, diamonds and rare earth metals be declared strategic minerals and that Epangelo has the exclusive exploration and mining rights of these...