GOVERNMENT'S entrance into the mining sector through the 100-per cent state-owned Epangelo Mining is "no major threat", Extract Resources Chairman Steve Galloway said at Swakopmund this weekend.
Galloway was easing concerns at an international analyst and media tour of the Rössing South exploration site, which the Australian (ASX)-, Canadian- and Namibian Stock Exchange-listed company foresees becoming the second biggest uranium mine in the world.
He has been assured by Mines and Energy Minister Erkki Nghimtina that Epangelo is not a "nationalisation initiative", Galloway said. Their involvement will merely entail "passive participation".
When the Minister officially launched Epangelo on December 3 last year, he marked it as the end of Government's role a "spectator of the (mining and exploration) game", especially in the strategic sectors of uranium, diamonds and copper.
Epangelo, which received N$1,5 million as start-up capital from state coffers, is a commercial entity which will compete on a level playing field with other private companies in the exploration and mining business, Government has promised.
It is a business meant to make money for the fiscus and the people of Namibia, Nghimtina said.
Galloway said although it is not clear yet what exactly Government wants, local partnerships between the state and private mining companies are noting new and that Government is a "good partner".
The Namibian government owns 50 per cent of Namdeb, and has a three-per cent stake in Rio Tinto's Rössing Uranium.
Last year, Government, through Epangelo, also teamed up Swapo-owned Kalahari Holdings, the United Africa Group (UAG) and French state-owned Areva to form an uranium exploration company.
Areva is the majority shareholder with 51 per cent of the shares, followed by Epangelo with 25 per cent, Kalahari Holdings with 14 per cent and UAG with ten per cent.
Galloway said Extract Resources, owned 40,1 per cent by London-based Kalahari Minerals, is keen to get Government on board.
"As long as Government recognises its conflict of interest as a regulator and participator in the industry," he added.
The Top 200 ASX company currently also has Rio Tinto (14,7 per cent), Polo Resources (10,3 per cent), SGJ Investments (3,1 per cent) and Acorn Capital (2,6 per cent) as shareholders.
Extract Resources wholly-owns Swakop Uranium, the company set to develop Rossing South to produce 15 million pounds of uranium oxide per year.
